Henri Matisse

Lynn G. Epsteen, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1984

Lucerne, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Henri Matisse, 1949, no. 136, illustrated in the catalogue

Verve, Paris, 1958, vol. IX, no. 35-36, p. 48
Raoul Jean Moulin, Henri Matisse, Drawings and Paper Cut-outs, London, 1969, illustrated pl. 34 (titled Nude on a Chair)
Mario Luci & Massimo Carrà, L'Opera di Matisse, Milan, 1971, no. D34, illustrated p. 110
Lydia Delectorskaya, Henri Matisse. Contre vents et marées, Paris, 1996, illustrated p. 340

Executed on white wove paper, not laid down, attached to the mount on the reverse of the top two corners. The sheet is floating in the mount, showing the original deckled edges, and there are artist's pinholes in all four corners. This work is in very good original condition. Colours: Overall the charcoal has a more neutral grey tonality in the original.
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Matisse established a permanent residence in the Place Charles Félix in Nice in 1921. Attracted to the rich atmosphere of this coastal town, the artist spent much of the subsequent decades here, producing some of the most iconic works of his career. Though images of the resort town and ocean beyond are occasionally visible in these works, often through an open window, Matisse often chose to portray his models indoors. The intimacy of this arrangement allowed the artist to focus on the human form, depicting a number of female models who sat for him. Nu assis is a beautifully sensual example of Matisse's drawings of nudes, and displays Matisse's singular ability to capture his model in a natural, casual pose, while at the same time depicting her with a great sense of elegance and grace. 

The present work is executed using the estompe technique, which Matisse developed in an effort to explore the 'synthesis of form and light,' as John Elderfield describes it. Elderfield wrote: 'In drawing, the great charcoal and estompe studies that dominate the years of 1922 to 1924 reveal the character of that synthesis, at least in its first fully realized state. This particular medium allowed him, he said, "to consider simultaneously the character of the model, the human expression, the quality of surrounding light, atmosphere and all that can only be expressed by drawing". The theme of these studies, then, is the synthesis of form and light.... Both media were particularly suited to investigation of how tonal modeling could be reconciled with his longstanding concern for the decorative flatness of the picture surface. They permitted him to create an extraordinarily wide range of soft, closely graded tones, ranging from transparent, aerated greys to dense and sooty blacks, that appear to adhere to the flatness of the sheet, and to release especially subtle effects of light from the luminous whiteness of the paper' (J. Elderfield, The Drawings of Henri Matisse, London, 1984, pp. 84-85).