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Lot Essay
Wanda de Guébriant has confirmed the authenticity of this drawing.
In 1935, Matisse started a series of important drawings in pen and ink of models in his studio. Many of these were reproduced in Cahiers d'art in 1936, and Matisse continued the series into 1937. As John Elderfield affirms, these drawings "are among the greatest achievements of his draughtsmanship. Some of the individual sheets are breathtaking in their assurance and audacityThe difficult lessons in composition Matisse had taught himself in the earlier 1930s made possible the utter fluency and sense of almost instantaneously achieved order that emerges from these remarkable works" (The Drawings of Henri Matisse, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1984, p. 113).
Matisse always drew from the model and his subject, most often, are set in the studio. In addition, the garments Matisse's models wore often set tone for the drawings. Here, Lydia Delectorskaya wears the ruffled shirt and pearls in which she appears in the artist's monumental oil painting Woman in Blue (1937; coll. Philadelphia Museum of Art). The rhythm of the artist's line as it follows the undulations of fabric, the intense gaze of the model, and the pearl necklaces, acts in the drawing as a corollary to the artist's use of expressive planes of saturated color in the oil paintings. As Matisse explained, "My line drawing is the purest and most direct translation of emotion. The simplification of the medium allows that. At the same time, these drawings are more complete than they may appear to some people who confuse them with a sketch. They generate light; seen on a dull day in direct light they contain, in addition to the quality and sensitivity of line, light and value differences which clearly correspond to color" ("Notes of a Painter on His Drawing," July 1939, qtd. in ed. J. Flam, Matisse: A Retropective, New York, 1988, p. 327).
The present work was surely produced as one of Matisse's many preparatory drawings for the artist's formal undertaking of Woman in Blue --not a precise study for the painting so much as one of his many variations on a single theme. For Matisse, the idea of theme and variation was influenced by the philosophy of Henri Bergson concerning time, memory and relative experience, and allowed both the artist and viewer to ponder the multiple realities inherent in the works' subjects. "Each sheet presents a different attitude, another view or nuance. Matisse himself described such series as 'a motion picture film of the feelings of an artist'" (qtd. in W. S. Lieberman, Henri Matisse, Los Angeles, 1966).
In 1935, Matisse started a series of important drawings in pen and ink of models in his studio. Many of these were reproduced in Cahiers d'art in 1936, and Matisse continued the series into 1937. As John Elderfield affirms, these drawings "are among the greatest achievements of his draughtsmanship. Some of the individual sheets are breathtaking in their assurance and audacityThe difficult lessons in composition Matisse had taught himself in the earlier 1930s made possible the utter fluency and sense of almost instantaneously achieved order that emerges from these remarkable works" (The Drawings of Henri Matisse, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1984, p. 113).
Matisse always drew from the model and his subject, most often, are set in the studio. In addition, the garments Matisse's models wore often set tone for the drawings. Here, Lydia Delectorskaya wears the ruffled shirt and pearls in which she appears in the artist's monumental oil painting Woman in Blue (1937; coll. Philadelphia Museum of Art). The rhythm of the artist's line as it follows the undulations of fabric, the intense gaze of the model, and the pearl necklaces, acts in the drawing as a corollary to the artist's use of expressive planes of saturated color in the oil paintings. As Matisse explained, "My line drawing is the purest and most direct translation of emotion. The simplification of the medium allows that. At the same time, these drawings are more complete than they may appear to some people who confuse them with a sketch. They generate light; seen on a dull day in direct light they contain, in addition to the quality and sensitivity of line, light and value differences which clearly correspond to color" ("Notes of a Painter on His Drawing," July 1939, qtd. in ed. J. Flam, Matisse: A Retropective, New York, 1988, p. 327).
The present work was surely produced as one of Matisse's many preparatory drawings for the artist's formal undertaking of Woman in Blue --not a precise study for the painting so much as one of his many variations on a single theme. For Matisse, the idea of theme and variation was influenced by the philosophy of Henri Bergson concerning time, memory and relative experience, and allowed both the artist and viewer to ponder the multiple realities inherent in the works' subjects. "Each sheet presents a different attitude, another view or nuance. Matisse himself described such series as 'a motion picture film of the feelings of an artist'" (qtd. in W. S. Lieberman, Henri Matisse, Los Angeles, 1966).