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Lot Essay
Georges Matisse has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
“The human face has always greatly interested me,” Matisse wrote in the introduction to the folio Portraits, 1954. “I have indeed a rather remarkable memory for faces, even for those that I have seen only once. In looking at them I do not perform any psychological interpretation, but I am struck by their individuality and profound expression...They probably retain my attention through their expressive individuality and through an interest that is entirely of a plastic nature...Each face has its own rhythm and it is this rhythm that creates the likeness...The conclusion of this is: the art of portraiture is the most remarkable” (J. Flam, ed., Matisse on Art, Berkeley, 1995, pp. 220, 221 and 223).
“The human face has always greatly interested me,” Matisse wrote in the introduction to the folio Portraits, 1954. “I have indeed a rather remarkable memory for faces, even for those that I have seen only once. In looking at them I do not perform any psychological interpretation, but I am struck by their individuality and profound expression...They probably retain my attention through their expressive individuality and through an interest that is entirely of a plastic nature...Each face has its own rhythm and it is this rhythm that creates the likeness...The conclusion of this is: the art of portraiture is the most remarkable” (J. Flam, ed., Matisse on Art, Berkeley, 1995, pp. 220, 221 and 223).