Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Female Torso
Henri Matisse French
Not on view
Henri Matisse informally named this dynamic bronze of a female torso "La Vie," or "Life." Interestingly, Matisse specialists have often associated this sculpture to his early interest in African art, seeing in the projecting breasts and arched back references to carved female figures from Côte d’Ivoire and Mali. Featured in 1912 at the 291 gallery, in the first exhibition dedicated entirely to Matisse’s sculptures, it was purchased by Stieglitz shortly afterward.
