Henri Matisse

Private Collection
Waddington Galleries, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner in March 1994

Between 1943 and 1946 Matisse worked on a series of charcoal portraits using several West Indian women as models (fig. 1). Since the early stages of his art, Matisse was fascinated by exotic physiognomies as well as by Oriental decoration, and in choosing sitters of non-Western ethnicity, he followed the Orientalist tradition that has its origins in the 19^th Century French culture. Matisse travelled in Morocco in 1912-13, a trip that left a profound impression on the artist, and continued to inspire him to paint exotic costumes and lavishly ornamented interiors throughout his career. In the present work, Matisse depicts the woman in an elegant, highly stylised manner, creating a graceful yet powerful image with an assured, free flowing line.

The charcoal contour delineating the model’s face and blouse is enriched with the estompe technique, giving the figure a strong, almost sculptural presence. During the 1920s charcoal and estompe became Matisse’s preferred medium when working on paper, using erasure to remove the rough charcoal surface and to create texture. In his article Notes d’un peintre sur son dessin published in 1939, Matisse described the advantages of this particular medium which allowed him, he wrote, ‘to consider simultaneously the character of the model, the human expression, the quality of surrounding light, atmosphere and all that can be expressed by drawing’ (quoted in John Elderfield, The Drawings of Henri Matisse, London, 1984, p. 84).

Fig. 1, Matisse and his model, 1946