Immediately following his return to the United States from Europe in January 1909, Max Weber concentrated on his own version of Cubist-inspired nudes. The works he created during this time display the full impact of what he had absorbed in Paris. Weber admired African sculpture and was inspired by its bold distortions, dark palette, and non-Western approach to form. Yet, Weber did not break up his compositions to the same degree as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque during their Cubist period, which perhaps suggests the influence of another artist—Henri Matisse. In fact, Weber owned a ceramic tile painted by the artist with a figure whose contours and shape are similar to those of the subject in this painting.

Label from Picasso: The Artist and His Models, November 5, 2016–February 19, 2017