Henri Matisse

Jean Matisse (the artist's son)
Galerie Lumley Cazalet, London (acquired by 1981)
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Jan Krugier, Geneva (acquired from the above in June 1984 and sold: Sotheby's, London, February 5, 2014, lot 17)
Acquired at the above sale

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Nudes —Nus—Nackte, 1984, no. 43, illustrated in the catalogue
Andros, Fondation Basil et Elise Goulandris, Henri Matisse, 1988, illustrated in the catalogue
Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin—Preussischer Kulturbesitz,  Linie, Licht und Schatten. Meisterzeichnungen und Skulpturen der Sammlung Jan und Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 1999, no. 144, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, The Timeless Eye. Master Drawings from the Jan and Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski Collection,1999, no. 174, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Miradas sin Tiempo. Dibujos, Pinturas y Esculturas de la Coleccion Jan y Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2000, no. 159, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, La Passion du dessin. Collection Jan et Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2002, no. 148, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Matisse/Picasso, 2002-03, no. 112, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Matisse 1917-1941, 2009, no. 54, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Lydia Delectorskaya, ...l'apparente facilité... Henri Matisse, Peintures de 1935-1939, Paris, 1986, illustrated p. 171

This work is in very good condition. Executed on cream laid paper. The sheet is affixed with adhesive to a mount at seven places around the perimeter of its verso. The edges are deckled. Several pinholes are visible at the extreme corners of the sheet. Watermarks are visible at the extreme edges. The sheet is very gently time stained with faint surface stains, particularly to the corners.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Henri Matisse is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most gifted and innovative draughtsmen. The gradual evolution of his drawing style reached its peak during the 1930s and 1940s when he developed the estompe technique in which charcoal is rubbed to a fine smoky appearance with highlights erased with a stump of paper. The use of estompe has become synonymous with Matisse and the subtle luminosity it delivers is uniquely desirable as shown by works such as Nu debout. The present work is executed with grace and economy: the pure rich black contours sweep across the sheet delineating the powerful figure and succinctly depict the taut limbs and soft flesh. Christian Zervos writes "Form lives by the movement that produces the illusion of rhythm and re-establishes anatomy, for doctors who believe anatomy is expressed by the play of muscles are mistaken, it is movement that creates the constant linkages of forms. It is not a mouth alone, or the white of the eyes, or the neck that matters, but the rhythm that holds them together… That is the perfection we find in his drawings" (Christian Zervos, Henri Matisse. Drawings, 1936, London, 2005, p. 6).

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s 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; however it was with charcoal created the definitive works on paper of his career. 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 describes 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’. In the charcoal drawings he established ‘the lines or the special values distributed over the whole canvas or paper and which forms its orchestration, its architecture" (quoted in Jack Flam, ed., Matisse on Art, Berkeley, 1995, pp. 130-32).