拍品專文
After staying in various hotels and apartments in Nice between 1917 and 1921, Matisse rented an apartment at 1 Place Charles Félix in September 1921. It was here that he executed many of his celebrated paintings and drawings of nudes (see illustration below). Matisse may well have executed the present work in the largest of the two studios in the apartment which "...with two windows and a fireplace, served as the primary painting and drawing studio. A densely and strangely patterned wallpaper and frescoed ceiling decorated the room...Matisse now had large demountable frames that would support the selected fabrics he used as backdrops" (J. Cowart, 'The Place of Silvered Light; An Expanded, Illustrated Chronology of Matisse in the South of France 1916-1932', exh. cat., Henri Matisse: The Early Years in Nice, Washington D. C., 1986, p. 31).
Matisse's model during the period 1920 to 1927 was Henriette Darricarrère, whom he had met when she was performing as a ballerina in the Studios de la Victoire, aged nineteen. "During her seven years of modelling, Henriette excelled at role-playing and had a theatrical presence that fuelled the evolution of Matisse's art. Earlier Lorette and Antoinette had initiated the exotic odalisque fantasy, but it was Henriette whose personality seems to have been the most receptive. She adopted the subject roles more easily and could express the moods and atmosphere of Matisse's settings without losing her own presence or her strong appearance" (J. Cowart, op. cit., p. 27).
Matisse was to comment "my models...are never just 'extras' in an interior. They are the principal theme in my work. I depend entirely on my model, whom I observe at liberty, and then I decide on the pose which best suits her nature. When I take a new model I intuit the position that will best suit her from her unself-conscious attitudes of repose, and then I become a slave to that pose" (see J. D. Flam, Matisse on Art, London, 1973, p. 82).
Matisse's drawings from the Nice period are no less notable for their shimmering light than his vibrantly coloured canvases. "Time and again Matisse would say that drawings should generate light...This was why charcoal and estompe...were especially attractive to him. Both media were particularly suited for investigating how tonal modelling could be reconciled with his long standing concern for the decorative flatness of the picture surface. They permitted him to create an extraordinarily wide range of soft, closely graded tones, ranging from transparent, aerated greys to dense and sooty blacks" (J. Elderfield, exh. cat., The Drawings of Henri Matisse, London, 1984, p. 84).
Matisse described the advantages of this particular medium which allowed him, he wrote "to consider simultaneously the character of the model, the human expression, the quality of surrounding light, atmosphere and all that can only be expressed by drawing" (H. Matisse, 'Notes d'un peintre sur son dessin', Le Point, July 1939).
Wanda de Guébriant has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work, which is recorded as no. V127 in the Henri Matisse archives.
Matisse's model during the period 1920 to 1927 was Henriette Darricarrère, whom he had met when she was performing as a ballerina in the Studios de la Victoire, aged nineteen. "During her seven years of modelling, Henriette excelled at role-playing and had a theatrical presence that fuelled the evolution of Matisse's art. Earlier Lorette and Antoinette had initiated the exotic odalisque fantasy, but it was Henriette whose personality seems to have been the most receptive. She adopted the subject roles more easily and could express the moods and atmosphere of Matisse's settings without losing her own presence or her strong appearance" (J. Cowart, op. cit., p. 27).
Matisse was to comment "my models...are never just 'extras' in an interior. They are the principal theme in my work. I depend entirely on my model, whom I observe at liberty, and then I decide on the pose which best suits her nature. When I take a new model I intuit the position that will best suit her from her unself-conscious attitudes of repose, and then I become a slave to that pose" (see J. D. Flam, Matisse on Art, London, 1973, p. 82).
Matisse's drawings from the Nice period are no less notable for their shimmering light than his vibrantly coloured canvases. "Time and again Matisse would say that drawings should generate light...This was why charcoal and estompe...were especially attractive to him. Both media were particularly suited for investigating how tonal modelling could be reconciled with his long standing concern for the decorative flatness of the picture surface. They permitted him to create an extraordinarily wide range of soft, closely graded tones, ranging from transparent, aerated greys to dense and sooty blacks" (J. Elderfield, exh. cat., The Drawings of Henri Matisse, London, 1984, p. 84).
Matisse described the advantages of this particular medium which allowed him, he wrote "to consider simultaneously the character of the model, the human expression, the quality of surrounding light, atmosphere and all that can only be expressed by drawing" (H. Matisse, 'Notes d'un peintre sur son dessin', Le Point, July 1939).
Wanda de Guébriant has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work, which is recorded as no. V127 in the Henri Matisse archives.