Henri Matisse

Leicester Galleries, London
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owner in 1936

London, Leicester Galleries, Henri Matisse, 1936, no. 74
London, Lumley Cazalet Ltd., Henri Matisse: Twenty Paintings and Drawings, 1998, no. 10, illustrated in the catalogue

Executed on a strong sheet of cream paper, not laid down, floating in the mount. There are artist's pinholes in all four corners. Apart from some very minor handling creases, this work is in very good original condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although the ink is slightly stronger in the original.
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Following the completion of his masterpiece Nu rose or Grand nu couché (now in the Baltimore Museum of Art) in October 1935, Matisse spent the end of that year working on a series of pencil and ink drawings on the theme of a reclining female nude. The model in these works was a Russian émigré Lydia Delectorskaya, who had recently started working for the artist, and who would become Matisse's muse and devoted assistant, always present in his studio until his death in 1954. This important series of works on paper was exhibited in the Leicester Galleries in London in January 1936, where the present drawing was acquired by the family of the present owner.

 

What these works have in common is a remarkable richness and freedom of execution, which can probably be interpreted as a sign of the artist's liberation, after months spent on a meticulously studied oil. Each conceived as an independent work of art in its own right rather than a preparatory study for a larger composition, these drawings show the nude model, only wearing a floral necklace, reclining on a bed covered by a densely patterned fabric. Matisse clearly took joy in exploring the pictorial possibilities offered to him by the combination of his two favourite motifs – the beautiful body of his young model and the patterns provided by the interior setting. The back of the woman's torso and a dog seated behind her are reflected in the mirror in the top left of the composition.