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Lot Essay
Wanda de Guébriant will issue a certificate of authenticity to the purchaser of this work, upon request, after the sale.
Henri Matisse was a consummate draughtsman, fascinated by the exotic. Both of these qualities are on clear display in Martiniquaise, a highly-finished and vigorous work created in 1945. In this picture, Matisse has built up a textured picture surface, using the charcoal to create areas of shading while allowing his strong sense of line to dominate. The shading and the thick lines of charcoal are both thrust into greater relief by the support, which has otherwise been left in reserve, adding a luminosity to this picture.
During the course of 1945, Matisse created a string of images of various models from Martinique, partly with a view to creating illustrations for a book of poems by John Antoine Nau, whom he himself had known. Matisse negotiated with his estate for the rights to publish the book and created a group of lithographs to that purpose, including a portrait of the author based on a photograph. Martiniquaise is distinguished from the images that Matisse created for that book as they appear predominantly to comprise line-drawn images showing close-ups of heads which dominate the sheets. In Martiniquaise, by contrast, there is a far greater attention to the modelling of the image, with the shading included, lines emphasised by being repeated, and also the inclusion of her shoulders, making this a half-length portrait. In this light, it appears that the model for this picture piqued Matisse's further interest. Perhaps it was the combination of sensuality, the delicate softness of her features and the contemplative gaze of her dark eyes that made her a perfect subject for Matisse in his continuing exploration of beauty.
In the end, for reasons outwith Matisse's control, the illustrated book of Nau's verse, Poésies antillaises, was only published in 1972, almost two decades after the artist's death. Matisse had selected that work in part because he shared Nau's great love of Martinique. Indeed, it was one of the stopping points for Matisse's return journey from Tahiti, which he had visited in 1930. That visit to Tahiti and various other islands had seen Matisse immersing himself in a tropical and sensual world of colour and experience. In a sense, he was following in the footsteps of the great artist-hero, Paul Gauguin. Finally, having predominantly recreated his own atmospheres of exotic splendour in the confines of his studios, he was experiencing far-flung worlds first hand. The experience would come to have a lasting effect on him, as is clear from his continuing dialogue with Nau, who had died as early as 1918 yet who reappeared in a tribute in one of Matisse's works, an image of spiralling snail shells, as late as 1953; likewise, his presence was clearly a driver for the images of models such as the one shown in the tender Martiniquaise. Louis Aragon may have been a visitor to Matisse's house when he was creating images of the martiniquaises, as in the notes to one of his essays, he described a remembered argument with the artist on the subject of Nau (see L. Aragon, Henri Matisse: A Novel, Vol. 2, trans. J. Stewart, London, 1971, p. 232n).
Henri Matisse was a consummate draughtsman, fascinated by the exotic. Both of these qualities are on clear display in Martiniquaise, a highly-finished and vigorous work created in 1945. In this picture, Matisse has built up a textured picture surface, using the charcoal to create areas of shading while allowing his strong sense of line to dominate. The shading and the thick lines of charcoal are both thrust into greater relief by the support, which has otherwise been left in reserve, adding a luminosity to this picture.
During the course of 1945, Matisse created a string of images of various models from Martinique, partly with a view to creating illustrations for a book of poems by John Antoine Nau, whom he himself had known. Matisse negotiated with his estate for the rights to publish the book and created a group of lithographs to that purpose, including a portrait of the author based on a photograph. Martiniquaise is distinguished from the images that Matisse created for that book as they appear predominantly to comprise line-drawn images showing close-ups of heads which dominate the sheets. In Martiniquaise, by contrast, there is a far greater attention to the modelling of the image, with the shading included, lines emphasised by being repeated, and also the inclusion of her shoulders, making this a half-length portrait. In this light, it appears that the model for this picture piqued Matisse's further interest. Perhaps it was the combination of sensuality, the delicate softness of her features and the contemplative gaze of her dark eyes that made her a perfect subject for Matisse in his continuing exploration of beauty.
In the end, for reasons outwith Matisse's control, the illustrated book of Nau's verse, Poésies antillaises, was only published in 1972, almost two decades after the artist's death. Matisse had selected that work in part because he shared Nau's great love of Martinique. Indeed, it was one of the stopping points for Matisse's return journey from Tahiti, which he had visited in 1930. That visit to Tahiti and various other islands had seen Matisse immersing himself in a tropical and sensual world of colour and experience. In a sense, he was following in the footsteps of the great artist-hero, Paul Gauguin. Finally, having predominantly recreated his own atmospheres of exotic splendour in the confines of his studios, he was experiencing far-flung worlds first hand. The experience would come to have a lasting effect on him, as is clear from his continuing dialogue with Nau, who had died as early as 1918 yet who reappeared in a tribute in one of Matisse's works, an image of spiralling snail shells, as late as 1953; likewise, his presence was clearly a driver for the images of models such as the one shown in the tender Martiniquaise. Louis Aragon may have been a visitor to Matisse's house when he was creating images of the martiniquaises, as in the notes to one of his essays, he described a remembered argument with the artist on the subject of Nau (see L. Aragon, Henri Matisse: A Novel, Vol. 2, trans. J. Stewart, London, 1971, p. 232n).