Henri Matisse

Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (acquired from the artist on January 11, 1923)

M. Monteux, Paris (acquired from the above on March 3, 1923)

Sir Valentine Abdy, Paris

Raoul Darval, France (sold: Sotheby Parke-Bernet, Inc., New York, May 3, 1973, lot 109)

Galerie Internationale, Geneva (acquired from the above and until at least 1981)

Max Lahyani, Geneva (circa 1985)

Galerie Marica, Tokyo (by 1991)

Ginza Hagiwara, Japan

Michel Cohen Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above

Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, Matisse, 1981, no. 63

Editions Bernheim-Jeune, Seize Tableaux de Henri Matisse, Paris, 1922-23, no. 8

Florent Fels, Henri Matisse, Paris, 1929, illustrated p. 35

Giovanni Scheiwiller, Henri Matisse, Milan, 1933, illustrated pl. XX

Massimo Carra, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Matisse, 1904-1928, Paris, 1982, no. 383, illustrated p. 102

Guy-Patrice and Michel Dauberville, Henri Matisse Chez Bernheim-Jeune, vol. 2, Paris, 1995, no. 562, illustrated p. 1130 (titled Nu sur rouge)

 

This work is in excellent original condition. Original canvas. There is one hair-line of craquelure in the figure's abdomen. There are no retouching visible under ultra-violet light.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Matisse completed the highly sensual Nu sur fond rouge on one of his many sojourns in Nice.  The painting dates from 1922, and, by this point, Matisse had moved into a residence in the ornate eighteenth century building at 1, Place Charles Félix (see fig. 1).  The bright Mediterranean sunlight streamed into the windows of his room, and the warm glow of this sunlit interior provided the perfect setting for many of his paintings of young, nude women.  The models for these pictures frequently appear as odalisques, posing amidst North African textiles and other objects from the Orient.

Jack Cowart described the apartment where Matisse lived from the second half of 1921 until late 1926 or early 1927, "The third-floor apartment had regular-size windows set at waist level. The windows on the west end were above encased heating units, taking advantage of the thick walls and the deep set-in of each window frame. There were two principal working rooms in the front, on the sea side. The larger of these, with two windows and a fireplace, served as the primary painting and drawing studio. A densely and strangely patterned wallpaper and frescoed ceiling decorated the room. Matisse further amplified this by installing his paintings and drawings as well as mirrors, reproductions of Michelangelo's drawings, and items from his own collection of ethnic masks, fabric hangings, and paintings, notably works of Courbet.  Matisse now had large demountable frames that would support the selected decorative fabrics he used as backdrops. In effect, the artist had a portable theatre in these spaces. In the larger room, with the sets, models, and costumes, he could focus toward the interior of the room. Or he could look outward, posing his women or still lifes by the windows, to the cours Saleya market, the baie des Anges, or the low line of houses on the quai des Etats-Unis between his building and the beach. The other studio room on the corner seems to have been simpler, with a striped wallpaper, and it was in this space that he worked on sculpture. He was thus equipped to have the best of both worlds: the interior studios and the exterior world framed by his window apertures. Furthermore, he was now a formal resident of Nice, the jewel of the Mediterranean" (Jack Cowart, "The Place of Silvered light: An expanded, illustrated catalogue of Matisse in the South of France, 1916-1932," Henri Matisse The Early Years in Nice, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1986-1987, p. 30).

Matisse commented how his environment affected his depictions of odalisques and how he was constantly refining and modifying his formal practices, "Look closely at the Odalisques: the sun floods them with its triumphant brightness taking hold of colours and forms.  Now the oriental décor of the interiors, the array of hangings and rugs, the rich costumes, the sensuality of heavy, drowsy bodies, the blissful torpor in the eyes lying in wait for pleasure. All this splendid display of a siesta elevated to the maximum intensity of arabesque and colour should not delude us.  In this atmosphere of languid relaxation, under the torpor of the sun washing over people and objects, there is a great tension brewing, a tension of a specifically pictorial order, tension that comes from the interplay and interrelationships of elements" (quoted in ibid., p. 35).

Nu sur fond rouge is one of the most uncompromising figure paintings of this period, depicting a fully nude model with no accessories.   In this picture, Matisse does not aim for mysterious allure, heightened by exotic draperies and props. There is a direct proffering of the figure's body, convincingly modeled  and silhouetted against the richly patterned screen in the background.  In other compositions devoted to this theme, Matisse usually depicted his figures wearing harem trousers or semi transparent draperies that veiled the lower half of the body (see fig. 2), but here Matisse displays the model's naked form, posed with her arms raised behind her head.   The model is most likely Henriette Darricarrère (see fig. 3), who appeared often in his paintings and sculptures from 1920 until 1927. 

 

Fig. 1, Henri Matisse working on his sculpture Henriette at his apartment and studio at 1, Place Charles Félix, mid-1920

Fig. 2, Henri Matisse, Odalisque assise aux bras levés, fauteuil rayé vert, 1923, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Fig. 3, Henriette Darricarrère on the Balcony at Palace Charles-Félix, Nice, 1927