Blue Nude (Souvenir of Biskra)

Henri Matisse shocked the French public when he exhibited this reclining nude at the 1907 Société des Artistes Indépendants. The bold blue figure, inspired by his travels to North Africa, was so controversial that it was burned in effigy at the 1913 Armory Show in Chicago.

Dr. Claribel Cone purchased the painting in 1926, adding it to what would become the world's largest public collection of Matisse works. The Baltimore Museum of Art now holds over 1,200 Matisse pieces from the Cone Collection.

The painting predates Matisse's famous 1950s Blue Nudes cutout series by nearly half a century, but shares the same bold simplification of the human form.