How does La Négresse elucidate its Medium?
Starting in the 1930s, Matisse began to experiment with creating art by cutting paper into shapes. By 1950, he had primarily shifted to this mode of art making, perhaps because his health and disabilities made painting on a large scale difficult. These "cut-outs" were often mural-sized and made from pieces of paper painted with gouache.La Négresse was first pinned onto the wall at his apartment in Nice, France around 1952. He rearranged the composition until early 1953. It takes up an entire wall. A newspaper review called the figure "a giantess."
Nice, France Nice mural gouache