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拍品专文
Matisse executed the present work, Odalisque, in May of 1944 while living in Nice. The artist first travelled to Nice in the fall of 1917 and later settled there for the rest of his life. During the years 1917-1930, dubbed Matisse’s early Nice period, the artist’s primary focus was the reclining female figure or the odalisque. This figure was often clad, or semi-clad, in oriental dress, reclining in a luxurious and exotic interior, and references a subject that fascinated many 19th century French artists.
Odalisque with Gray Trousers, part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection and one of Matisse’s most famous canvases of the period, depicts the reclining female form amidst a vibrant and decadent room. While many artists’ portrayals of the odalisque represent a fascination with the east, Matisse claimed this subject simply allowed him the means to explore the physical form.
"I paint odalisques in order to paint the nude. Otherwise, how is the nude to be painted without being artificial? But also, I know they exist. I was in Morocco. I saw them."
-Henri Matisse
It would be remiss to omit mention of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ renown Grande Odalisque in discussing this subject. His canonical painting, owned by the Louvre in Paris, emphasizes the elongated form of an imagined concubine in a Middle Eastern harem. As Ingres never visited Morocco or its neighboring countries, his conception of the odalisque is a prime example of the orientalist approach to this subject, one rooted in Western imagination rather than lived observations. While also evoking Titian, Ingres’ odalisque conveys a languid and erotic approach to the portrayal of the female subject. Both artists’ focus in these canvases center around an interest in the elongated, reclining figure.
While the title of the present work imbues the drawing with similar connotations as those derived from Ingres’ painting, here, Matisse’s focuses on the female form rather than lavish interiors or oriental motifs. With her back turned to the viewer, the subject’s body extends throughout and beyond the length of the paper. The technique he uses here, referred to as estompe, exaggerates the sinuous curves of the model, which he elegantly defines through charcoal lines. Matisse elaborates on his use of this technique in his 1939 text Notes of a Painter on his Drawing. He relays, “charcoal or stump drawing…allows me to consider simultaneously the character of the model, her human expression, the quality of surrounding light, the atmosphere and all that can only be expressed by drawing.” He continues, “The emotional interest they inspire in me is not particularly apparent in the representation of their bodies, but often rather by the lines or the special values distributed over the whole canvas or paper and which forms its orchestration, its architecture” (quoted in J. Flam, ed., Matisse on Art, Berkeley, 1995, pp. 130-132).
Odalisque with Gray Trousers, part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection and one of Matisse’s most famous canvases of the period, depicts the reclining female form amidst a vibrant and decadent room. While many artists’ portrayals of the odalisque represent a fascination with the east, Matisse claimed this subject simply allowed him the means to explore the physical form.
"I paint odalisques in order to paint the nude. Otherwise, how is the nude to be painted without being artificial? But also, I know they exist. I was in Morocco. I saw them."
-Henri Matisse
It would be remiss to omit mention of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ renown Grande Odalisque in discussing this subject. His canonical painting, owned by the Louvre in Paris, emphasizes the elongated form of an imagined concubine in a Middle Eastern harem. As Ingres never visited Morocco or its neighboring countries, his conception of the odalisque is a prime example of the orientalist approach to this subject, one rooted in Western imagination rather than lived observations. While also evoking Titian, Ingres’ odalisque conveys a languid and erotic approach to the portrayal of the female subject. Both artists’ focus in these canvases center around an interest in the elongated, reclining figure.
While the title of the present work imbues the drawing with similar connotations as those derived from Ingres’ painting, here, Matisse’s focuses on the female form rather than lavish interiors or oriental motifs. With her back turned to the viewer, the subject’s body extends throughout and beyond the length of the paper. The technique he uses here, referred to as estompe, exaggerates the sinuous curves of the model, which he elegantly defines through charcoal lines. Matisse elaborates on his use of this technique in his 1939 text Notes of a Painter on his Drawing. He relays, “charcoal or stump drawing…allows me to consider simultaneously the character of the model, her human expression, the quality of surrounding light, the atmosphere and all that can only be expressed by drawing.” He continues, “The emotional interest they inspire in me is not particularly apparent in the representation of their bodies, but often rather by the lines or the special values distributed over the whole canvas or paper and which forms its orchestration, its architecture” (quoted in J. Flam, ed., Matisse on Art, Berkeley, 1995, pp. 130-132).