Full Face Nude, Plunging View (Nu de face, vue plongeante)

Full Face Nude, Plunging View (Nu de face, vue plongeante), created by Henri Matisse in 1906, is a seminal lithograph print that demonstrates the artist's shifting approach to form and figure study during the post-Fauve era. Executed following the most chromatic phase of his career, this piece reflects the French avant-garde's growing interest in integrating structure and volume into expressive compositions, moving away from pure, saturated color.

The composition employs a dramatically high vantage point, utilizing the vue plongeante (plunging view) to visualize the reclining figure. This unconventional perspective flattens the background while simultaneously compressing and distorting the body’s form, emphasizing the geometric masses and rounded contours. This approach rejects traditional naturalistic proportions in favor of an expressive simplification that focuses intensely on the linear description of the subject.

As a lithograph, the prints of this work showcase Matisse's facility with drawing and his technical command of reproductive media. The lines are delicate yet confident, capturing the immediate quality of a sketch while preserving the strong contour used to define the subject against the negative space of the paper. Unlike the intense color application dominating his paintings of the immediately preceding years, here Matisse utilizes line to define volume and psychological presence. This focus on robust, simplified anatomy foreshadows the structured solidity seen in his later explorations of Classicism.

The subject of the full-face nude, rendered with such radical perspective, highlights Matisse's continuous willingness to challenge academic norms in pursuit of formal innovation. This important example of early modern printmaking remains a key reference for understanding the artist’s output during this seminal year, 1906. Today, the work is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), ensuring its continued study alongside other major works of the French modernist movement.