Henri Matisse

Estate of the artist
Lumley Cazalet Ltd., London
Private Collection, USA
Richard Salmon, London
Waddington Galleries Ltd., London
Gallery Nichido, Tokyo

Matisse's ink drawings are both complex and simple. They have the simplicity of a flowing line, drawn by pure spontaneity, and absorption of the mind in the supple gesture of the hand. Their complexity resides in the nature of drawing, which belongs, as the artist used to say, 'to the realm of spirit.'

The present work is probably a portrait of Lydia Delectorskaya, a young Russian girl who began to serve as Matisse's model in the 1930s. She appears in numerous studies and paintings of that period, most notably in the celebrated Femme et Portait (see: G.-P. and M. Dauberville, Matisse, Paris, 1995, vol. II, no. 755). She later became his loyal secretary and housekeeper until his death in 1954. To express his ease and familiarity with his model, Matisse characteristically said ''When I'm bored I do a portrait of Mme Lydia. I know her like the alphabet'' (quoted in P. Schneider, Matisse, London, 1984, p. 576).