The Green Chemise

Artist Sir Matthew Smith (Halifax, England, 1879 - 1959)

Datec. 1931

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 72.4 cm, Width: 92.4 cm
Frame: Height: 91.7 cm, Width: 110.3 cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1956 with income from the Macdonald Bequest.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG003810

Keywords

Female

About MeMatthew Smith spent long periods in France as a young man and studied under Matisse in Paris. The debt to the French masters - especially to Matisse - is evident in the simplicity of this image and in the way the artist suggests his visual delight in the subject of the painting: a languishing model.

However, where Matisse is inclined to be flatter, more linear and graphic in his handling of paint, Smith is richer, his brush more loaded with pigment. To the French example, Smith brings a lower, more brooding and intense tonality that could be English, born of Sickert and the Camden Town Group.