The Joy of Life

In a glade of flat, glowing color, nude figures lounge, embrace, play pipes, and dance in a ring on the far hillside - an Arcadian vision of pleasure rendered in sinuous outline and vivid, unnatural hues. Matisse built the Joy of Life from rhythmic line and pure, decorative color, a radical Fauve idyll of sensual ease. Now in the Barnes Foundation, it is among the boldest pictures of its moment - a modern golden age, the human figure and the landscape simplified into flowing arabesques and brilliant flat color, harmony and abandon held in perfect balance.