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Lot Essay
Wanda de Guébriant has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Dating from the mid-1920s, during Matisse's first decade in Nice, Jeune femme accroupie is a sensuous work that shows the master draughtsman's reaction to the intense light of the South of France. For, just as the cloisonnisme and the thick boundary lines that surrounded the fields of colour in his paintings of the mid 1910s had almost dissolved upon exposure to the Mediterranean light, so too in his drawings the effect was immediately transformative in an entrancing, sensual manner. Matisse's distinctive linearity has here given way to an evocative, scumbled light that veils the contours of his model. Where Matisse had earlier shown his adoration of colour, in Jeune femme accroupie we see how his love of light infuses each individual stroke and gesture, combining to illuminate a complete tableau. The infinite variety of tone that Matisse has achieved with his charcoal is itself wondrous, and lends a true sense of light, shade and form to the picture. The model is conjured before us through the subtle build-up of gradations of tone, through his repeated caress-like application of the charcoal.
Matisse's art had always been sensual, and yet in the South of France his work gravitated towards a Renoir-like voluptuosness as never before. His pictures featured beautiful women and opulent backgrounds, each becoming a feast for the senses, an image aimed to delight. In Nice, one of Matisse's most important influences was his Muse, Henriette Darricarrère, whom he had first seen dressed as a ballerina posing for a photographer. Jeune femme accroupie appears to show Henriette. Her talent for role-playing that so enchanted the artist is apparent in the vague hint of the odalisque theme that permeates the work, despite the lack of costume shown. It is therefore in keeping with the lingering atmosphere of the harem that permeates Jeune femme accroupie that Matisse himself described his pictures of women as being 'perhaps sublimated sensual pleasure, which may not yet be perceived by everyone' (Matisse, quoted in Henri Matisse: The Early Years in Nice 1916-1930, exh. cat., Washington D.C., 1986, p. 33).
Dating from the mid-1920s, during Matisse's first decade in Nice, Jeune femme accroupie is a sensuous work that shows the master draughtsman's reaction to the intense light of the South of France. For, just as the cloisonnisme and the thick boundary lines that surrounded the fields of colour in his paintings of the mid 1910s had almost dissolved upon exposure to the Mediterranean light, so too in his drawings the effect was immediately transformative in an entrancing, sensual manner. Matisse's distinctive linearity has here given way to an evocative, scumbled light that veils the contours of his model. Where Matisse had earlier shown his adoration of colour, in Jeune femme accroupie we see how his love of light infuses each individual stroke and gesture, combining to illuminate a complete tableau. The infinite variety of tone that Matisse has achieved with his charcoal is itself wondrous, and lends a true sense of light, shade and form to the picture. The model is conjured before us through the subtle build-up of gradations of tone, through his repeated caress-like application of the charcoal.
Matisse's art had always been sensual, and yet in the South of France his work gravitated towards a Renoir-like voluptuosness as never before. His pictures featured beautiful women and opulent backgrounds, each becoming a feast for the senses, an image aimed to delight. In Nice, one of Matisse's most important influences was his Muse, Henriette Darricarrère, whom he had first seen dressed as a ballerina posing for a photographer. Jeune femme accroupie appears to show Henriette. Her talent for role-playing that so enchanted the artist is apparent in the vague hint of the odalisque theme that permeates the work, despite the lack of costume shown. It is therefore in keeping with the lingering atmosphere of the harem that permeates Jeune femme accroupie that Matisse himself described his pictures of women as being 'perhaps sublimated sensual pleasure, which may not yet be perceived by everyone' (Matisse, quoted in Henri Matisse: The Early Years in Nice 1916-1930, exh. cat., Washington D.C., 1986, p. 33).