Lot 35
  • 35

Henri Matisse

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Description

  • Henri Matisse
  • La fenêtre ouverte
  • Signed and dated Henri-Matisse 28 (lower left)
  • Charcoal on paper

  • 24 1/2 by 18 3/4 in.
  • 62.5 by 47.5 cm

Provenance

Estate of the artist

Jean Matisse, Paris (inherited from the above)

Private Collection (acquired from the above and sold: Christie's, New York, May 7, 2002, lot 39)

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Exhibited

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Henri Matisse Retrospective Exhibition, 1931, no. 104

Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne; Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Matisse dessins et sculpture, 1975, no. 80

London, Hayward Gallery; New York, The Museum of Modern Art, The Sculpture and Drawings of Henri Matisse, 1985, no. 68 (titled La porte-fenêtre)

 

Literature

Florent Fels, Henri Matisse, Paris, 1929, illustrated p. 46

Albert C. Barnes and Violette de Mazia, The Art of Henri Matisse, Pennsylvania, 1933, discussed p. 185 (titled French Window)

Catalogue Note

This beautiful drawing was in Matisse's personal collection until his death, and then it was inherited by the artist's son Jean.  Dr. Albert Barnes and Violette de Mazia included it in their important 1933 study on the artist's work, and discussed it in the following terms:  "The drawings fall into three general types.  The characteristic note of one of them is modeling both of figures and objects by juxtaposed areas of light and shadow, which are accentuated in varying degree to yield corresponding variations in three-dimensional quality.  Objects of all sorts are given the shape of fairly definite geometrical forms, and their composition produces a sort of irregular checkerboard or patchwork effect. (Albert C. Barnes and Violette de Mazia, The Art of Henri Matisse, Pennsylvania, 1933, discussed pp. 185-86).