The artwork entitled “Nude in a Cane Chair,” completed by Matthew Smith in 1919, belongs to the Fauvism and Post-Impressionism art movements. This genre of the artwork is classified as a nude painting (nu).
In “Nude in a Cane Chair,” a woman is depicted reclining in a cane chair. The woman is portrayed sitting with her arms raised and resting on her head, gazing directly towards the viewer. Her figure, rendered with bold and expressive strokes, features a vivid yellow coloration on her skin, enhanced by red accents on her cheeks and nipples, which imbues the painting with a sense of vitality and warmth. The background contrasts the subject with cooler tones of blue, while the cane chair is depicted in warmer hues of orange and red. The artist’s choice of bright and unconventional colors, along with the loose and vigorous brushwork, exemplifies the dynamism and emotive intensity characteristic of Fauvism. The painting integrates elements of both Fauvism’s vibrant color palette and Post-Impressionism’s emphasis on personal expression and abstraction.
