Henri Matisse

The Brett Mitchell Collection, Inc., Cleveland
Acquired from the above in 1984

Dover Publications, Inc., Henri Matisse, Drawings, Themes and Variations, New York, 1995, illustrated p. 86

Executed on white wove paper which has not been laid down. There are pinholes in all four corners, There is minor surface dirt to the upper right and upper left corners. There is a vertical repair to the paper located near the center of the lower edge (measuring no more than 1/4 in. in length) and another horizontal repair (measuring no more than 1/4 in. in length) to the lower right corner. There is very minor creasing to the sheet in the upper right quadrant. There is very little time fading to the paper and the pigment is very fresh and strong. The work is in overall very good condition.
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Dessin pour "Thèmes et variations," variation 15, series “I" is a beautifully sensuous example of the exceptional drawings Matisse produced between 1941 and 1943 while in the South of France. Confined to his bed for many of his waking hours following two operations, drawing had, for obvious reasons, become increasingly paramount to Matisse as a means of expression. He spent the early 1940s almost exclusively on the creation of a vast series of charcoal, ink and pencil drawings from which he hand-selected a number of images to be published in 1943 in a luxurious portfolio entitled Dessins: Thèmes et Variations, with a preface by Louis Aragon. 

A quickly executed and pure line drawing, the present work invites us to instinctively trace the sure, rhythmic notions made by Matisse's hand. Certainly, the line that traces the outline which stems from the bottom of the model's nose and flows all the way along her hairline and around again testifies to Matisse's unfaltering touch. The clean and sinuous black pencil lines travel across the crisp, blank page intuitively and without interruption, according the same weight of importance to the delicate leaves on the left of the composition as they do the model's figure.

The present work 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. It is a strikingly intimate scene; we observe the model who is relaxed, reclining on her side with her head in hand and seemingly unaware of our gaze as her own attention is caught by something off to the right. Even Matisse, ordinarily so dissatisfied, was impressed by the quality and quantity of this sequence of themes and variations that gained in mystery and intensity as it unfolded.