Henri Matisse

André Weil, Paris

Alex and Rita K. Hillman, New York (acquired from the above March  2, 1955)

Alex Hillman Family Foundation (acquired from the above on October 16, 1968 and sold: Christie's, New York, November 5, 2008, lot 21)

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Bronx Museum of the Arts, Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture from the Alex Hillman Family Foundation, 1972

Laramie, The University of Wyoming Art Center, The Hillman Collection, 1972

Jacksonville Art Museum & Corpus Christi, Art Museum of South Texas, The Alex Hillman Collection, 1973-74, no. 4, illustrated in the catalogue

Jamaica Arts Center, Drawings by Modern Masters from the Alex Hillman Family Foundation, 1978.

Roslyn, Nassau County Museum, Modern Masters: Paintings and Drawings from the Alex Hillman Family Foundation, 1977-78, no. 19, illustrated in the catalogue

Selections from the Collection of the Alex Hillman Family Foundation, 1979-85 (this exhibition travelled to ten university art galleries throughout the United States)

The Brooklyn Museum, Exhibition of Works from the Alex Hillman Family Foundation, 1987-88

Phoenix, University of Arizona Art Museum, Paintings and Drawings from the Alex Hillman Family Foundation, 1992

Emily Braun, Manet to Matisse: The Hillman Family Collection, Seattle and London, 1994, p. 110, no. 34, illustrated in color p. 111

Executed on white wove paper, hinged to the mount on the reverse of the top two corners and floating in the mount. This work is in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Matisse completed this exquisite work at a point in his career when he had all but abandoned oil painting in favor of cut-outs, and his drawings of this period show his clear preference for linear compositions.  The present work is rendered from the perspective of the artist at work, featuring his own hand in the composition as he draws his model Annélies Nelk, a young Dutch woman who came to his studio in the south of France.

Discussing his interior scenes Matisse wrote that: "My models, human figures, are never just 'extras' in an interior. They are the principal theme in my work. I depend entirely on my model, whom I observe at liberty, and then I decide on the pose which best suits her nature. When I take a new model, I intuit the pose that will best suit her from her un-self-conscious attitudes of repose, and then I become the slave of that pose. I often keep those girls several years, until my interest is exhausted. My plastic signs probably express their souls (a word I dislike), which interests me subconsciously, or what else is there? Their forms are not always perfect, but they are expressive. The emotional interest aroused in me by them does not appear particularly in the representation of their bodies, but often rather in the lines or the special values distributed over the whole canvas or paper, which form its complete orchestration, its architecture. But not everyone perceives this. It is perhaps sublimated sensual pleasure, which may not yet be perceived by everyone" (quoted in Ernst Gerhard Güse, Henri Matisse, Drawings and Sculpture, Munich, 1991, p. 22).