Henri Matisse

Theodore Waddington Galleries, Montreal and Quebec
Private Collection (acquired from the above on June 20, 1980)
Pace Wildenstein, New York
Michelle Rosenfeld Gallery, New York
Private Collection, United States (sold: Christie's, New York, May 4, 2005, lot 60)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Pierre-Schneider, Matisse, London, 1984, illustrated p. 378 (incorrectly dated 1947-48)

Although Matisse drew in pen and ink throughout his celebrated career, he executed very few broadly-rendered ink drawings after his Fauve period until the 1940’s, when he turned to brush and ink to create a series of drawings that equal the richly shaded charcoal drawings of the same period. The Fauve drawings are composed of a network of lines spots and scribbles of in that create the effect of abrupt contrasts of light and shade. The brush and ink drawings of the late 1940’s posses a classical discipline, reminiscent of the ancient art of calligraphy, and a refined sense of overall design. The artist fills the entire sheet in grand, gestural strokes of the brush. Pierre Schneider finds the brush drawings of this period interchangeable with the paintings of the same name, ‘’which only goes to prove they have the same identity. These large dazzling black and white sheets of paper are Matisse’s last paintings’’ (Pierre Schneider, Matisse, New York, 1984, p. 652-654).

Fig. I Henri Matisse, Madame de Pompadour, painted cut and pasted paper, brush, pen and ink, 1951, Los Angeles County Museum of Art