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Lot Essay
Nu couché III is the culminating sculpture in Henri Matisse’s series of three figures in the recumbent pose of an odalisque, a signature theme whose formal, plastic expression he revisited and conceived anew over a span of more than twenty years. This classic, raised-elbow pose first appeared in the key figure at the center of the landmark Fauve painting Le bonheur de vivre, 1905-1906 (The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia). In the following year, Matisse sculpted the radically angular Nu couché I (Aurore) (Duthuit, no. 30; cast 5/10 sold, Christie’s New York, 9 November 1999, lot 504), while painting Nu bleu: Souvenir de Biskra (Cone Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art), initiating an ongoing dialogue between sculpture and painting that would repeatedly energize and guide the evolving direction of his art.
As a reverie of feminine sensuality, the odalisque dominated Matisse’s iconography in Nice, from 1917 to the very end of his career. Ten years after the artist’s initial extended sojourn in the city, working in three dimensions had again become especially critical to his development. Matisse resumed work on Grand nu assis, begun in 1922 (Duthuit, no. 64), and modeled three large female heads, Henriette I through III, during 1925-1927 (nos. 66, 70, and 75). He returned to the reclining figure in Nu couché II, 1927 (no. 69; cast 10/10 sold, Christie’s New York, 12 November 2015, lot 4C) and the present Nu couché III, 1929. Having finally completed Grand nu assis—acknowledged as the artist’s masterwork, in any medium, of the early Nice period—Matisse returned to Paris and created Nu de dos, 4e état, the ultimate, essentialized conception in his most monumental series of sculptures, during late 1929 or early 1930 (Duthuit, no. 76; sold, Christie’s New York, 3 November 2010, lot 65).
“I took to clay in order to rest from painting, in which I had done absolutely everything I could for the moment,” Matisse explained to Pierre Courthion in 1941. “It was to put my sensations in order and look for a method that really suited me. When I’d found it in sculpture, I used it for painting” (quoted in S. Guilbert, ed., Chatting with Henri Matisse: The Lost 1941 Interview, Los Angeles, 2013, pp. 84-85).
Having gathered in his vintage harvest of sculptures, Matisse in late February 1930 sailed halfway around the world to experience the tropical light in Tahiti. Following his return to Nice, he executed in 1931 the Danse murals for The Barnes Foundation. It was not until 1935 that the artist resumed easel painting on a regular basis; he then completed Grand nu couché (Nu rose), his masterpiece of the Thirties. Having dispensed with the naturalistic treatment Matisse typically accorded his odalisques during the previous decade, he instead translated to this painting the intuitive, arabesque-driven sense of form, with sensual and structural elements held in balance, that he had explored six years earlier in Nu couché III.
As a reverie of feminine sensuality, the odalisque dominated Matisse’s iconography in Nice, from 1917 to the very end of his career. Ten years after the artist’s initial extended sojourn in the city, working in three dimensions had again become especially critical to his development. Matisse resumed work on Grand nu assis, begun in 1922 (Duthuit, no. 64), and modeled three large female heads, Henriette I through III, during 1925-1927 (nos. 66, 70, and 75). He returned to the reclining figure in Nu couché II, 1927 (no. 69; cast 10/10 sold, Christie’s New York, 12 November 2015, lot 4C) and the present Nu couché III, 1929. Having finally completed Grand nu assis—acknowledged as the artist’s masterwork, in any medium, of the early Nice period—Matisse returned to Paris and created Nu de dos, 4e état, the ultimate, essentialized conception in his most monumental series of sculptures, during late 1929 or early 1930 (Duthuit, no. 76; sold, Christie’s New York, 3 November 2010, lot 65).
“I took to clay in order to rest from painting, in which I had done absolutely everything I could for the moment,” Matisse explained to Pierre Courthion in 1941. “It was to put my sensations in order and look for a method that really suited me. When I’d found it in sculpture, I used it for painting” (quoted in S. Guilbert, ed., Chatting with Henri Matisse: The Lost 1941 Interview, Los Angeles, 2013, pp. 84-85).
Having gathered in his vintage harvest of sculptures, Matisse in late February 1930 sailed halfway around the world to experience the tropical light in Tahiti. Following his return to Nice, he executed in 1931 the Danse murals for The Barnes Foundation. It was not until 1935 that the artist resumed easel painting on a regular basis; he then completed Grand nu couché (Nu rose), his masterpiece of the Thirties. Having dispensed with the naturalistic treatment Matisse typically accorded his odalisques during the previous decade, he instead translated to this painting the intuitive, arabesque-driven sense of form, with sensual and structural elements held in balance, that he had explored six years earlier in Nu couché III.