Woman under a Tree

In March 1906 Henri Matisse showed a large canvas called Le Bonheur de vivre at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris, a woodland full of nude figures lying, embracing and dancing, painted in colours no real forest has. Far to the south on the Mediterranean coast, Cross was painting nude figures among trees and water in these same last years of his life. This small picture is only about 31 centimetres tall. A woman with a wreath in her hair sits up on a slanting branch, one arm raised to hold the bough above her head. Her skin is pink with green in its shadows, the bark is streaked with blue, and the leaves go on in thick, separate strokes of yellow and green. Cross brushed his signature along the bottom edge with the same quick hand.