Henri Matisse

Mittleman, New York
James Baron, New York
Weyhe Gallery, New York
Pierre Matisse, New York
Frank Crowninshield, New York (1931)
Pierre Matisse, New York (1948)
Private Collection
Pace Wildenstein, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner

New York, Weyhe Gallery, Inaugural Exhibition, 1925
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Henri Matisse, Retrospective Exhibition, 1931, no. 89, illustrated in the catalogue
Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Henri Matisse: Retrospective of Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, 1948, no. 116

Alfred Barr, Henri Matisse, Retrospective, New York, 1931, no. 89, illustrated
Henry Clifford, Louis Aragon et al., Henri Matisse: Retrospective of Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Philadelphia, 1948, no. 116
Guy-Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Matisse, Paris, 1995, vol. II, no. 297, illustrated p. 755

Drawn in 1918, Portrait de femme dates from the very beginning of Matisse’s period in Nice, where he moved drawn by the climate and light of the Mediterranean, and where he was to stay for the most part of his life. The sitter appears to be the eighteen year-old Antoinette Arnoux, the artist’s favourite and most celebrated model during his early years in Nice. In the winter of 1918 Matisse took a room at the Hôtel Méditerranée located on the Promenade des Anglais, and during the following months he executed a series of paintings and drawings of Antoinette: in some she is reading leisurely, in others she is depicted more formally, posing for the artist. Portrayed in a variety of costumes and settings, in this drawing she is wearing an ornate flower-print dress, that appears in a number of her other portraits Matisse executed around this time (fig. 1). Often rendered as a vulnerable young woman, in the present drawing she is depicted in a full frontal pose occupying the entire sheet; her direct gaze suggests a certain intimacy and an atmosphere of ease between the artist and his model.

The attention to the detail of the sitter’s dress demonstrates Matisse’s undying interest in patterns and decoration. Often depicting his models in an interior setting, he rejoiced in painting the floral wallpaper, ceiling mouldings and patterned curtains of his room at the Hôtel Méditerranée, creating an almost theatrical setting. This fascination with textile designs and arabesque motifs is visible here in the rich  ornamentation of Antoinette’s dress. Discussing Matisse’s portraits, John Elderfield wrote: ‘his model is shown in decorative costumes – a striped Persian coat, a Rumanian blouse – and the decorativeness and the very construction of a costume and of a painting are offered as analogous. What developed were groups of paintings showing his model in similar or different poses, costumes, and settings: a sequence of themes and variations that gained in mystery and intensity as it unfolded’ (J. Elderfield, Henri Matisse, A Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992, p. 357).

Fig. 1, Henri Matisse, Femme au chapeau fleuri, 1919, oil on canvas, Private Collection