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拍品專文
Wanda de Guébriant has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
In 1939 Matisse wrote his Notes of a Painter on his Drawing. He conceived these observations along the lines of his influential Notes of a Painter, which had appeared three decades earlier. His new text was published in a special issue of the art journal Le Point devoted exclusively to his work. The artist explained and defended his approach to drawing:
My line drawing is the purest and most direct translation of my emotion. The simplification of the medium allows that. However, these drawings are more complete than they appear to some people, who confuse them with a kind of sketch. They generate light; seen on a dull day or in indirect light they contain, in addition to the flavor and sensitivity of the line, light and value differences that quite clearly correspond to color. Once my emotive line has modeled the light of my white paper without destroying its precious whiteness, I can neither add nor take anything away. The page is written; no correction is possible. If it is not adequate, there is no alternative than to begin again, as if it were an acrobatic feat. (translated and reprinted in J. Flam, ed., Matisse on Art, Berkeley, 1995, pp. 130-131).
Matisse's finely fluent line -- unsupported by hatching, shading, or reinforcement of any kind -- was sufficient to suggest "the form or the value accents necessary to the composition of the drawing" (ibid.). The artist often managed to extract a bountiful richness from this reduced simplicity of means, as in the present drawing, where he has contrasted the relaxed and sensuous contours of a seated female figure, languorously engaged in reverie, with the repetitive leaf forms of a magnolia plant in a large vase. Matisse was fond of juxtaposing his female models with plants, or if plants were not present, he would often incorporate floral designs into his sitter's costumes or the patterning on walls and other accessories. These images commingle to form Matisse's evocation of the femme-fleur, in which he expressed a woman's essential naturalness, sensuality and fertility.
Femme et fleurs was drawn in 1941, the same year that Matisse began his great series of drawings in either charcoal or pen and ink, the Dessins: Thèmes et variations. In early 1941 the artist had become seriously ill from an infection that resulted from surgery he had undergone in Lyons for duodenal cancer. He returned to his residence at the Hôtel Regina, Nice, in May 1941, and although he was still bedridden, and would remain a semi-invalid for the rest of his life, he was able to resume drawing during the summer, and even, at times, managed to paint. In late autumn he commenced the serial drawings of the Thèmes et variations, which he worked on throughout 1942. The sequence was published in its entirety as a book in 1943, with a preface by the poet Louis Aragon. In its subject and composition, Femme et fleurs is related to Thème E, nos. 11-13. In this series, a woman similarly attired lounges in a chair, with a cushion at her back; there is also a magnolia plant in a large vase. The model and plant also appear in the drawings of Thème C, nos. 1-5.
Matisse called these drawings of 1941-1942 one of the great "flowerings" of his life, an apt metaphor in light of the plant imagery he often employed in these pictures. In April 1942 he wrote to his son Pierre, "If I manage to do in painting what I've done in drawing, I can die happy" (quoted in H. Spurling, Matisse the Master, New York, 2005, p. 405).
In 1939 Matisse wrote his Notes of a Painter on his Drawing. He conceived these observations along the lines of his influential Notes of a Painter, which had appeared three decades earlier. His new text was published in a special issue of the art journal Le Point devoted exclusively to his work. The artist explained and defended his approach to drawing:
My line drawing is the purest and most direct translation of my emotion. The simplification of the medium allows that. However, these drawings are more complete than they appear to some people, who confuse them with a kind of sketch. They generate light; seen on a dull day or in indirect light they contain, in addition to the flavor and sensitivity of the line, light and value differences that quite clearly correspond to color. Once my emotive line has modeled the light of my white paper without destroying its precious whiteness, I can neither add nor take anything away. The page is written; no correction is possible. If it is not adequate, there is no alternative than to begin again, as if it were an acrobatic feat. (translated and reprinted in J. Flam, ed., Matisse on Art, Berkeley, 1995, pp. 130-131).
Matisse's finely fluent line -- unsupported by hatching, shading, or reinforcement of any kind -- was sufficient to suggest "the form or the value accents necessary to the composition of the drawing" (ibid.). The artist often managed to extract a bountiful richness from this reduced simplicity of means, as in the present drawing, where he has contrasted the relaxed and sensuous contours of a seated female figure, languorously engaged in reverie, with the repetitive leaf forms of a magnolia plant in a large vase. Matisse was fond of juxtaposing his female models with plants, or if plants were not present, he would often incorporate floral designs into his sitter's costumes or the patterning on walls and other accessories. These images commingle to form Matisse's evocation of the femme-fleur, in which he expressed a woman's essential naturalness, sensuality and fertility.
Femme et fleurs was drawn in 1941, the same year that Matisse began his great series of drawings in either charcoal or pen and ink, the Dessins: Thèmes et variations. In early 1941 the artist had become seriously ill from an infection that resulted from surgery he had undergone in Lyons for duodenal cancer. He returned to his residence at the Hôtel Regina, Nice, in May 1941, and although he was still bedridden, and would remain a semi-invalid for the rest of his life, he was able to resume drawing during the summer, and even, at times, managed to paint. In late autumn he commenced the serial drawings of the Thèmes et variations, which he worked on throughout 1942. The sequence was published in its entirety as a book in 1943, with a preface by the poet Louis Aragon. In its subject and composition, Femme et fleurs is related to Thème E, nos. 11-13. In this series, a woman similarly attired lounges in a chair, with a cushion at her back; there is also a magnolia plant in a large vase. The model and plant also appear in the drawings of Thème C, nos. 1-5.
Matisse called these drawings of 1941-1942 one of the great "flowerings" of his life, an apt metaphor in light of the plant imagery he often employed in these pictures. In April 1942 he wrote to his son Pierre, "If I manage to do in painting what I've done in drawing, I can die happy" (quoted in H. Spurling, Matisse the Master, New York, 2005, p. 405).