.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Wanda de Guébriant has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
On 29 March 1930, at the age of 60, Henri Matisse arrived in Papeete harbour in Tahiti, after a gruelling ten day crossing from San Francisco on the freighter Tahiti. He was following in the footsteps of his great inspiration Paul Gauguin, and during his trip Matisse chose to see all the surrounding islands that Gauguin had visited, including the Marquesas Islands where Gauguin had died. This was undoubtedly a trip to rejuvenate Matisse, much as the same islands had rejuvenated the art of Gauguin many years before.
Matisse travelled alone, but documented much of his trip with photographs and works on paper, and wrote home on a daily basis to his wife Amélie. Some of these works on paper and photographs would then become source material for oils painted in the following years – only one small oil, a small sketch on panel of a receding path amongst trees, was painted during his stay.
The artist filled several sketchbooks in Tahiti, and he sketched daily in Papeete, either in the town gardens, or when it became too hot, in his room at the Hotel Stuart. He drew the furniture in his room, a number of self-portraits, and most often, the view from his room out to sea. Many of these drawings utilise his favourite framing device of the window, but a number, including the present lot, were sketched from his balcony. The view is instead framed by the local maru maru trees. On the right of the composition is the Papeete, a local trading ship, formerly a French navy schooner that had crossed from San Francisco in 1892.
On 29 March 1930, at the age of 60, Henri Matisse arrived in Papeete harbour in Tahiti, after a gruelling ten day crossing from San Francisco on the freighter Tahiti. He was following in the footsteps of his great inspiration Paul Gauguin, and during his trip Matisse chose to see all the surrounding islands that Gauguin had visited, including the Marquesas Islands where Gauguin had died. This was undoubtedly a trip to rejuvenate Matisse, much as the same islands had rejuvenated the art of Gauguin many years before.
Matisse travelled alone, but documented much of his trip with photographs and works on paper, and wrote home on a daily basis to his wife Amélie. Some of these works on paper and photographs would then become source material for oils painted in the following years – only one small oil, a small sketch on panel of a receding path amongst trees, was painted during his stay.
The artist filled several sketchbooks in Tahiti, and he sketched daily in Papeete, either in the town gardens, or when it became too hot, in his room at the Hotel Stuart. He drew the furniture in his room, a number of self-portraits, and most often, the view from his room out to sea. Many of these drawings utilise his favourite framing device of the window, but a number, including the present lot, were sketched from his balcony. The view is instead framed by the local maru maru trees. On the right of the composition is the Papeete, a local trading ship, formerly a French navy schooner that had crossed from San Francisco in 1892.