Henri Matisse

Galerie Samlaren (Agnes Widlund), Stockholm (acquired circa 1950)
Marika Pauli, Stockholm
Private Collection, Stockholm
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1978 

Stockholm, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Cézanne till Picasso. Fransk konst i svensk ägo, 1954

Albert E. Elsen, The Sculpture of Henri Matisse, New York, 1971, no. 125, illustration of another cast p. 100
Claude Duthuit & Wanda de Guébriant, Henri Matisse, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre sculpté, Paris, 1997, no. 37, catalogued p. 98; illustrations of another cast pp. 96-97 & 99
Walter Guadagnini, Matisse, New Jersey, 2004, illustration of another cast p. 267

Rich brown patina. This work is in good original condition.
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Matisse's genius for rendering the sensuality of the human form is arguably no better exemplified than in his sculptures. From modest beginnings in 1894, when he modelled a small medallion, Profil de femme, until 1950 when he executed his last sculpture, Nu debout (Katia), Matisse turned to sculpture at crucial moments in his career when problems he encountered in his painting could only be resolved by investigations in three dimensions. As Matisse explained, his sculptures should be considered as a means of exploration: 'I took up sculpture because what interested me in painting was a clarification of my ideas. I changed my method and worked in clay in order to have a rest from painting... By changing the medium I do not change the goal... I do not consider my sculpture anything but an exercise' (quoted in Matisse: Painter as Sculptor (exhibition catalogue), Baltimore Museum of Art, Dallas, 2007, pp. 17 & 18).

Conceived in 1908, the present work was executed during the most fruitful and inventive phase of Matisse's career, which occurred while moving his residence, studio and school into the Hôtel Biron (now the Musée Rodin). The artist began to develop new sculptural ideas and experienced the art of volume and forms on alternatively small and grand scales. As a result of these exercises, Matisse achieved his sculptural maturation, masterfully illustrated by the present work where the reduced scale magnifies the impact of the artist's touch. Matisse further clarified his ideas about the essentials of forms, formulated while he was working on his own sculpture, in the advice he gave to his students: 'In addition to the sensations one derives from a drawing, a sculpture must invite to handle it as an object, just so the sculptor must feel, in making it, the particular demands for volume and mass. The smaller the bit of sculpture, the more essential the forms must exist' (quoted in ibid., pp. 3 & 4).

His new concern for formal order was reinforced by his response to the physical presence of the model. As illustrated in the photograph, the crouching model lays her left elbow on her right knee in a poetic and sensual manner in opposition to her right arm falling against her bust to reach the floor. These two asymmetric positions are separated by the central axis from her head to her right foot. The body is simply and elegantly folded, creating a sense of grace and fragility which is reinforced by the reduced size. In Petit nu accroupi avec bras, the artist achieves a remarkable synthesis of formal rigor and sensuousness that acclaims the position of Matisse as a sculptor in his own right.