Pelle Borjesson, Göteborg (acquired in 1953)
M. Knoedler and Co., New York
Private Collection (acquired from the above circa 1960)
Acquired by the present owner in 2000

Albert E. Elsen, The Sculpture of Henri Matisse, New York, 1971, no. 85, illustration of another cast p. 70
Michael P. Mazzatesta, Henri Matisse: Sculptor/Painter, Fort Worth, 1984, illustration of another cast p. 62
Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, The Sculpture of Henri Matisse, London, 1984, no. 16, illustration of another cast p. 145
Ernst-Gerhard Güse, ed., Henri Matisse: Drawings and Sculpture, Munich, 1991, no. 112, illustration of another cast 
Claude Duthuit & Wanda de Guébriant, Henri Matisse, Catalogue raisonné de l' oeuvre sculpté, Paris, 1997, no. 19, illustration of anothe💮r c💙ast p. 47

Brown patina. Minor surface dirt in deeper crevices. Patina rubbing on high points including head, left arm, hip and toes. Screwed to a base at two places on underside. Work is in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The medium of sculpture allowed Matisse a control over his subjects that he could not have in his paintings. The tactile experience of molding the clay with his hands enabled him to feel the form as he created it and to appreciate the sensuality of the figure in the round. Nu couché à la chemise was conceivജed in 1906, in the height of Matisse's Fauve period. In lieu of the wild coloration that emboldened his oils from these years, the expressive power of this work derives from the gestures of the limbs that the artist has pinched, twisted 🌱and stretched into place. Other casts of this work can be found in the Musée Matisse in Nice, the Baltimore Museum of Art and in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.

In his book, The Sculpture of Henri Matisse, Albert E. Elsen writes of the present work, "In 1906, perhaps working with the same model who had posed for woman leaning on her hands, Matisse did violence to the tradition of studied refinements in the odalisque in his Nu couché à la chemise.  The models shirt falls casually off her shoulder, and the garment obscures the supporting arm.  In keeping with his taste for strenuous postures in passive situations, the models left leg is pulled across the right, thrusting the hip into severely prominent relief, and her left elbow juts into space.  As in the paintings of the same time with their somewhat additive figural disposition and tangible coordination, each section of the body, divisible at its flexible joints, is made clear, and only the chemise effects flow across some areas" (Albert E. Elsen, op. cit., p. 58).

Fig 1. Henri Matisse, La Bonheur de vivre, 1905-06, oil on canvas, The Barnes Foundation