Yellow Nude

Nantes Museum of Fine Arts (France).

Canvas, oil.

One of the earliest figurative works demonstrates the author’s fascination with Post-impressionism; in particular, Fauvism. The artist contrasts the warm yellow skin of the model with the strokes of the colour of cold emerald. This is one of Delaunay’s most striking applications of tone. The saturated colours are offset by black outlines – they create a bold and heavy shape of nudity, which is essentially primitivistic. The pose of the model is relaxed; her facial expression is dispassionately indifferent like a mask and speaks of melancholy. Delaunay did not try to depict the girl as attractive but gave her appearance a rugged, modern look. The aphorism of the artist herself can be applied to the work with extreme accuracy: colour is the skin of the world.