- 324
Henri Matisse
Description
- Henri Matisse
- Jeune femme endormie, Thèmes et variations
- Signed and dated Henri Matisse 41 and inscribed E6 (lower right)
- Black crayon on paper
- 20 5/8 by 15 3/4 in.
- 52.5 by 40 cm
Provenance
Sale: Sotheby's, London, June 28, 2000, lot 181
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Exhibited
Literature
Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, Oeuvres de Henri Matisse, Paris, 1989, illustrated, p. 258
Henri Matisse, Drawings, Themes and Variations, New York, 1995, illustrated p. 37 and on the cover
Lydia Delectorskaya, Henri Matisse: Contre vents et marées, Peintures et livres illustrés de 1939 à 1943, no. E6, illustrated p. 216
Catalogue Note
The years 1941-42 were a particularly active period for Matisse, as he worked from his bed recovering from two operations. Matisse made a large group of drawings in crayon, pen and ink and pencil which were published in 1943 as the portfolio, Dessins: Thèmes et Variations, with a preface by Louis Aragon. The portfolio contained 158 drawings, divided into 17 sequences of themes, marked A to P, each containing 3 to 19 variations. The sequences developed the themes which preoccupied Matisse throughout his creative life: the fe🧸male figure, still-life𝔉s, flowers and fruits.
The title Matisse chose for the portfolio indicated both the purpose and the process of executing the drawings. Each theme undergoes several variations, providing the artist with an opportunity to make the composition either more concise or more elaborate. The Thèmes et Variations were considered by Matisse to be of great importance in his oeuvre and he donated several sequences to museums in Grenoble, Bordeaux, Montpellier and Saint-Etienne (see: John Elderfield, The Drawings of Henri Matisse, London, 1984, pp. 275 & 289).