Property from the Estate of Frances Leventritt It is a rare pleasure in our professional meanderings to meet a true, quintessential New Yorker--one whose tastes, manner, politics and sense of style are evident in every gesture. Frances Leventritt was just this near mythical New Yorker that one longs to know, or perhaps, that one longs to be after a full and engaging life in this city. The poet Frank O'Hara wrote that one should have "The grace to be born and live as variously as possible." This prophetic statement suited Frances personally and was perfectly apparent in her outstanding and eclectic collection. I came to know Frances personally in the last years of her life, when she had already left her East 86th Street apartment for a more comfortable life at the Carlyle. She liked to sleep late and preferred the hour of afternoon tea for a meeting. There, we would discuss her colorful recollections of the New York art world of the 1950s and 60s. She and her husband Victor began collecting early in their marriage, and she continued even after his death in 1968. The collection ranges from Modernist paintings, drawings and sculptures including brilliant examples by Giacometti and Degas to Post War American and European artists, featuring jewels from Dubuffet and Calder as well as objects spanning the distant passions of Islamic pottery and old Master prints. Throughout the varied collection, quality and connoisseurship are the hallmarks. The Leventritts began collecting with the guidance of their dear friend, the art historian Leo Steinberg. His advice was invaluable and through his introduction, the Leventritts came to have personal relationships with many important dealers, such as Pierre Matisse and Sam Kootz. With great candor, Frances would tell stories about artists they had met, dinners they had shared and tales of her wranglings with dealers to get the works of art she deeply desired. Her Giacometti paintings came from Pierre Matisse, about whom she recalled, "I knew they were meant to be mine, but I had to spend some time convincing the dealer of that." And to my query about her stunning 1952 Dubuffet Portrait of Sam Kootz, she replied, "He was such a lovely man--one of the only dealers I would have a portrait of." Over the years, Frances continued to nurture her interest in art and culture while focusing on her philanthropic activities. She started her career as a Broadway singer and actress and even appeared in the 1946 Broadway revival of Showboat. Though she married a man from an established Harvard legacy, and then went on to raise three children, she never lost her sense of art's power to transform ordinary lives or to raise the bar for what women of her era could experience or accomplish. Most importantly, she never lost her entitlement to critique or comment frankly about artistic talent-real or imagined. She endowed a lecture in the history and theory of art in her husband's memory at the Harvard University Art Museums and sponsored the creation of a new garden in his memory at The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard, in addition to supporting countless other charities including the New York Philharmonic and The Actor's Fund. A New Yorker through and through, Frances Leventritt enjoyed many of life's riches, but collecting works ranked high in her worldly pursuits. Christie's is pleased to offer the following works from the Estate of Frances Leventritt: lots 396-410. Amy Cappellazzo Christie's

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

Nu accroupi, main droite à terre (pochade)

Details

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nu accroupi, main droite à terre (pochade)
signed with initials and numbered 'H.M. 10' (on the right) and stamped with foundry mark 'C VALSUANI CIRE PERDUE' (on the back)
bronze with brown patina
Height: 7½ in. (19 cm.)
Conceived in 1908; this bronze version cast in 1953

Provenance

Estate of the artist.
Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (acquired from the above, 1958).
Acquired from the above by the late owner, 1963.

Literature

A.H. Barr, Jr., Matisse His Art and His Public, New York, 1951, p. 366 (another cast illustrated).
L. Aragon, Henri Matisse, roman., Paris, 1971, vol. II, no. 134 (another cast illustrated).
A.E. Elsen, The Sculpture of Henri Matisse, New York, 1972, no. 129 (another cast illustrated).
I. Monod-Fontaine, The Sculpture of Henri Matisse, London, 1984, p. 146, nos. 32 and 32a (another cast illustrated).
A.M. Hammacher, Modern Sculpture: Tradition and Innovation, New York, 1988, pp. 98-99, no. 104 (another cast illustrated, p. 99).
C. Duthuit and W. de Guébriant, Henri Matisse, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre sculpté, Paris, 1997, pp. 114-117, no. 42 (another cast illustrated, pp. 114-115, 117).
Y.-A. Bois, Matisse and Picasso, Paris, 1998, p. 59, no. 40 (another cast illustrated).

Lot Essay

The present sculpture is one of four crouching nudes that Matisse executed in 1908, based on a photograph in his possession (see Christie's, New York, Evening Sale, 1 November 2005, lot 367). Two of the other sculptures (Duthuit, nos. 37 and 38), which probably preceded this work, conform closely to the photograph, and even depict the model's hair style as seen therein. There is a small torso, without a head, arms or legs (Duthuit, no. 39). The placement of the limbs, however, is far freer and more open in the present sculpture than in the earlier studies, and Matisse has depicted his subject's hair pulled up and tied in an antique-style bun, as seen in sculptures by Maillol. The artist has also modeled the surface here in more rugged and expressive manner. The present sculpture represents an interim stage between the earlier crouching nudes and a larger figure in a similar pose, Grand nu accroupi (Olga) (Duthuit, no. 49). The model for the latter was Olga Meerson, a Russian painter who studied with Matisse, and became a close friend of the artist and his family in 1908-1911.

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