HENRI MATISSE | Farandole

Waddington Galleries, Montreal
Acquired from the above in 1976

Waddington Galleries, Montreal, Henri Matisse, 1869-1954: Paintings, Drawings, Lithographs, 1976, no. 22, illustrated in the catalogue

This work is very good condition. Executed on cream laid paper. Hinged at upper left and upper right corners. There are some small pieces of tape on the verso of the sheet from a previous mounting. There is some very light creasing to the paper in the upper center quadrant. The medium is extremely fresh and the surface is clean overall. There is one pindot size instance of foxing in the lower torso of the figure on the left side of the composition. One further pindot in the lower left hand quadrant. There is handling mark in the lower right quadrant. There is a framer's note in pencil on the verso of the sheet which is not by the hand of the artist.
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.

In 1938, Matisse returned to his most iconic motif and the subject of his 1909 Fauve masterpiece: La Danse. The present work is an extremely rare example from this series, rendered in colored crayon with elegant, hard-edged lines. Executed following the completion of his celebrated mural at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, La Danse II, it displays his dedication to the subject as well as the immense joy he felt in rendering these familiar figures in motion. Matisse wrote to his son about the La Danse II exclaiming "it has a splendour that one can't imagine unless one sees it—because both the whole ceiling and its arched vaults come alive through radiation and the main effect continues right down to the floor... I am profoundly tired but very pleased. When I saw the canvas put in place, it was detached from me and became part of the building" (quoted in Matisse (exhibition catalogue), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1993, n.p.). Matisse was exhausted by the project itself, but was immensely content with the outcome and continued to revisit the theme. In this act of self-appropriation, Matisse re-contextualizes his own oeuvre. Displaying a modernity ahead of his time, it is widely recognized that Matisse’s dancers were initially inspired by the swirling Shakespearean fairies in British Romantic artist William Blake’s watercolor Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing (see fig. 1). While Matisse’s use of color and championing of the collage method have placed him in the forefront of the art historical canon, it is perhaps this motif which has proved his most lasting and quintessentially recognizable contribution, informing the work of countless contemporary artists (see fig. 2).



The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the late Madame Marguerite Duthuit-Matisse.