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Lot Essay
A copy of a certificate from Marguerite Duthuit dated 22 April 1979 accompanies this work.
In the summer of 1933, the Limited Editions Club of New York commissioned Henri Matisse to illustrate a new edition of James Joyce's Ulysses, which since its publication in 1922, stood at the very forefront of the modern novel. In March of the following year, Matisse, fascinated by the novel's contemporary parallel with Homer's epic poem of the same name, commenced a series of drawings in preparation for six soft-ground etchings which were to be included in an edition.
The present drawing portrays Circé, who in Joyce's version is the madam of a brothel in the redlight district of Dublin. In Homer's epic poem, Circé is the teacher of the queen of the island of Aenea, who bewitched the crew of Ulysses's ship and turned them into swine. As Ulysses resists Circé's wiles and forces her to transform his crew back into men, Joyce's protagonist, Leopold Bloom avoids Circé's curse of venereal disease by heaving the good sense to abstain from carnal pleasures. Matisse chose to depict Circé as an imperious queen seated upon her throne, wearing a diaphnous gown fastened in grecian style with a clasp at the shoulder. During the course of the preparatory study, Matisse began to focus on the contest of Ulysses against the obstacles the gods placed in his way, so that the final illustrations depict violence and struggle (see sale, Christie's New York, 12 November 1997, Lot 405). Hence this regal protrayal of Circe was not developed further as it did not fit Matisse's overall theme for the illustrations.
Joyce approved of the artist's approach, and an edition of 1500 illustrated copies was published by the club's presses in Westport Connecticut in 1935.
In the summer of 1933, the Limited Editions Club of New York commissioned Henri Matisse to illustrate a new edition of James Joyce's Ulysses, which since its publication in 1922, stood at the very forefront of the modern novel. In March of the following year, Matisse, fascinated by the novel's contemporary parallel with Homer's epic poem of the same name, commenced a series of drawings in preparation for six soft-ground etchings which were to be included in an edition.
The present drawing portrays Circé, who in Joyce's version is the madam of a brothel in the redlight district of Dublin. In Homer's epic poem, Circé is the teacher of the queen of the island of Aenea, who bewitched the crew of Ulysses's ship and turned them into swine. As Ulysses resists Circé's wiles and forces her to transform his crew back into men, Joyce's protagonist, Leopold Bloom avoids Circé's curse of venereal disease by heaving the good sense to abstain from carnal pleasures. Matisse chose to depict Circé as an imperious queen seated upon her throne, wearing a diaphnous gown fastened in grecian style with a clasp at the shoulder. During the course of the preparatory study, Matisse began to focus on the contest of Ulysses against the obstacles the gods placed in his way, so that the final illustrations depict violence and struggle (see sale, Christie's New York, 12 November 1997, Lot 405). Hence this regal protrayal of Circe was not developed further as it did not fit Matisse's overall theme for the illustrations.
Joyce approved of the artist's approach, and an edition of 1500 illustrated copies was published by the club's presses in Westport Connecticut in 1935.