亨利·马蒂斯《大幅木版画》

1905年，马蒂斯与阿尔伯特·马尔凯、安德烈·德兰、拉乌尔·杜菲等艺术家共同展出了一批色彩明艳、笔触奔放的画作，被评论界称为“野兽派”。这些艺术家同样痴迷于木版画的表现力——受高更版画创作及非洲、大洋洲艺术中形式精简与线条概括的影响，他们将雕凿、切割、修琢木版的物理过程视为对部落雕塑与面具雕刻艺术的致敬。马蒂斯终其一生持续研究人体表现，在1905至1906年冬季创作出一批极具力量感的墨线素描。这些自由挥洒的线条既彰显出强烈的表现力，又突出了他视为素描灵魂的轮廓线。其中三幅后来被转刻为木版画，最具代表性的《大幅木版画》展现了艺术家如何通过单一平面构建图像：模特与背景以同样充满动势的刀法呈现，强烈变形的人体被压平后，彻底融入了延伸至画面边界的装饰性构图。

In 1905, Matisse and other artists like Albert Marquet, Andre Derain, and Raoul Dufy exhibited spontaneous, brightly colored paintings, so that the artists were labeled "fauves," or wild beasts. The Fauves were also attracted by the expressive possibilities of woodcuts. Influenced by Paul Gauguin's prints and the reduction of form and simplification of line in African and Oceanic art, these young French artists found the physical process of gouging, cutting, and whittling woodblocks akin to the carving they so admired in tribal sculpture and masks. Matisse studied the human figure throughout his career, producing black ink drawings of unusual strength and energy during the winter of 1905 and 1906. Freely executed, they convey a new evocative power and emphasize contour, the most important element in a drawing for Matisse. He translated three of these drawing into woodcuts. The most important,The Large Woodcut, exemplifies how the artist experimented with composing the image on one plane. Model and background are conveyed with the same dynamic strokes, so the boldly distorted figure, now flattened, is part of the overall ornamental pattern that extends to the boundaries of the design.