La Négresse (1952–53) by Henri Matisse is a gouache découpée, made of cut pieces of colored paper.

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.

"[5] La Négresse may be inspired by Josephine Baker, a black American dancer whose popularity reached its height in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s.

[4][6] One of Baker's famous outfits was a skirt made from bananas, which Matisse may be invoking in the orange-yellow forms around the figure's waist.

[10] In 2018, the work was referenced in the title of Denise Murrell's exhibition and catalog Posing Modernity: the Black Model from Manet to Matisse.