HENRI MATISSE | Femme aux roses

Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (acquired from the artist)
M Vignier, Paris
Marius de Zayas, New York
John Quinn, New York (acquired from the above on April 21, 1920)
Julia Quinn Anderson, New York (acquired from the estate of the above in 1926)
Mary Anderson Conroy, New York
Thomas F. Conroy, New York
Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York
Mrs. Edward G. Robinson, Beverly Hills
Private Collection (and sold: Christie's, New York, November 15, 1988, lot 38)
Acquired at the above sale

New York, M. de Zayas Gallery, Exhibition of Paintings by Courbet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Matisse, 1919, no. 22
New York, M. de Zayas Gallery, Paintings by Matisse, 1920, n.n. 
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Loan Exhibition of Impressionist & Post-Impressionist Painting, 1921, no. 65, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, Joseph Brummer Galleries, Exhibition of Works by Henri Matisse, 1924, no. 13
Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, The Noble Buyer: John Quinn, Patron of the Avant-Garde, 1978, no. 51, illustrated in the catalogue

Henry McBride, News and Comment in the World of Art, November 23, 1919, sec. 7, mentioned p. 12
Henry McBride, "New Matisse on Exhibition," in New York Herald, December 12, 1920, sec. 3, mentioned p. 4
Estate of John Quinn, ed., Catalogue of the Art Collection Belonging to Mr. Quinn, New York, 1924, mentioned n.p.
John Quinn, 1870-1925: Collection of Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings & Sculpture, Huntington, 1926, illustrated p. 11
Benjamin Lawrence Reid, The Man from New York: John Quinn and His Friends, New York, 1968, illustrated p. 471

The work is in very good condition. The canvas has not been lined. The edges of the canvas have been covered with paper tape. There is a network of fine, stable craquelure throughout the composition. There are two tiny flecks of loss to the pigment in the extreme upper left corner. Under UV light, a thick layer of varnish is difficult to read through. In the lower register there is evidence of old retouching in some of the craquelure. One nailhead sized area of the inpainting in the white collar of the woman's blouse. Several pindot strokes of inpainting along the upper half of the right edge.
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.

An intimate composition which allows for a close engagement with the lovely model, Femme aux roses is certainly one of the finest portraits from Matisse’s Nice period. This splendidly painted work is a wonderful example of Matisse’s sublime use of line which emphasizes the beautiful contours of his model’s face. Its pared-down palette and linearity reflect a distinctive post-war sentiment with the sitter exuding a sense of purity and hopefulness. Painted around 1919 in Nice, this image represents a continuation of pictorial concerns initially explored during his first stay in 1917-18. His post-war years in Nice were marked by substantial and sometimes dazzling innovations; the unique quality of the light and relative isolation of the French Riviera provided the artist with the ideal environment in which to reengage with figurative elements in his painting.  In the year of 1919, Matisse also regularly visited the ailing Pierre-Auguste Renoir in Cagnes during the final months of his life. As a young man Matisse was a frequent guest in Renoir’s studio, turning to the aging artist for professional advice and inspiration (see fig. 2). “Renoir’s work saves us from the drying-up effect of pure abstraction” Matisse explained in an interview that same year (quoted in Hilary Spurling, Matisse the Master, A Life of Henri Matisse, The Conquest of Colour, London, 2005, p. 223). He believed that Renoir’s art was an antidote to the stultifying impact of Cubism that he saw consuming his peers, and he struggled to reveal the plastic beauty of form and figuration. Throughout the war years, the artist had worked against the tide of the Parisian avant-garde, committing himself to a style of painting that was grounded in form and color. But at the beginning of 1919, his determination was at its most strident: "Work monopolized him from the start," writes Hilary Spurling of this period. "Throughout the first months of 1919, he complained that the road lay uphill, that he was toiling like a carthorse, that his labors exhausted him and made him despair. But he had no doubt that he was on to something. 'As for telling you what it will be like,' he wrote to his wife on January 9^th of 1919, 'that I couldn't say since it hasn't happened yet, but my idea is to push further and deeper into true painting'" (ibid., p. 223).

John Elderfield has compared Matisse’s technique during this period to that of Vermeer, who also effectively preserved the serenity and lyrical intimacy of his models, “The kind of order he emulates…is indeed that of a Vermeer, or a Chardin, except that he shows us an unabashed sensuality quite foreign to any such earlier bourgeois vision. He looks also to Renoir and Courbet, and frankly enjoys the seductiveness with which he surrounds himself” (John Elderfield, “The Early Years of Nice,” in Henri Matisse: A Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992, p. 289).

By 1920 this portrait had found its way into the collection of the legendary American collector and patron of the arts John Quinn, whose other modernist masterpieces included Matisse’s Blue Nude and Picasso’s Three Musicians (see fig. 3). During World War I he provided funding for artists in France, writing in a 1915 letter to his friend Maud Gonne that “the world needs the artist and poet more than they need the world.” Quinn later received the Legion of Honor for his service to the nation of France.  

During the war, a future owner of the painting, Edward G. Robinson, served in the United States Navy. He went on to become a Hollywood actor, appearing in over 100 films during his long career, as well as earning a reputation for speaking out against the threat of fascism during the 1930s and funding political, cultural and educational projects.



The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the late Wanda de Guébriant.