Henri Matisse

Galerie Carré, Paris (acquired in 1941)
Private Collection (acquired from the above in 1943)
Galerie 18 (Anthony Field), Paris (until 1971)
Galerie Nichido, Paris
Mitsukoshi Ltd., Tokyo
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down and t-hinged to the mount in three places along the upper edge. All four edges are irregularly cut and there is some mount staining visible on each extreme edge relating to previous mounting. There are paper remnants on each edge of the verso. There are three pinholes to the upper left corner, and one to the upper right. The sheet is lightly time-stained. This work is in good condition.
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“In the drawings he shows himself at his most fluid, and reveals a good deal of his technique, including his treatment of the drawings as flat ornament, an approach he developed from the study of Islamic art” (from the introduction of Henri Matisse, Drawings, Themes and Variations, New York, 1995, n.p.).

Throughout the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s Matisse drew obsessively, producing numerous works on paper using a variety of materials, but favoring two in particular—charcoal and ink. Ink, applied using either a brush or pen, was used to depict a variety of subjects from nudes and portraits to still-lifes, while charcoal was almost exclusively employed to depict the female figure. Matisse fully exploited the qualities of both techniques and produced many remarkable images. Dissimilar though they were, these two techniques were inter-related in practice. In his article Notes d’un peintre sur son dessin published in 1939, Matisse described the advantages of these different media: "the [ink] drawings are always preceded by studies made in a less rigorous medium than pure line, such as charcoal or stump drawing, which allows me to consider simultaneously the character of the model, her human expression, the quality of surrounding light, the atmosphere and all that can only be expressed by drawing"(quoted in Jack Flam, ed., Matisse on Art, Berkeley, 1995, pp. 130-32).

The present work was likely painted by the artist from his bed. Beginning in January 1941, the artist underwent numerous surgeries in Lyon before returning to Nice where he took up residence at the Hotel Regina in the Quartier Cimiez. Matisse continued to work by resting a canvas or a plank upon which to draw, against a rolling table attached to his bed. Nature morte is a delightful example of the still lifes produced in this period.