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Lot Essay
“My drawings and my canvases are pieces of me.”
Henri Matisse
Executed in 1950, Henri Matisse’s Buste de jeune femme nue is a study in elegance. Using only a few, minimal lines, Matisse nevertheless conjures an entire individual, shown wearing nothing but a slim necklace. As the artist explained of his methods, “One must always search for the desire of the line, where it wishes to enter or where to die away. Also always be sure of its source; this must be done from the model” (quoted in “Sarah Stein’s Notes,” in J. Flam, ed., Matisse on Art, Berkeley, 1995, p. 48). The resulting portrait is striking, and with its eloquent, calligraphic contours, Buste de jeune femme nue reveals a painterly approach to line.
Indeed, in many ways, the late ink drawings represent a union of the artist’s graphic and painterly practices, and across creamy sheets of paper, Matisse confidently outlined his subjects. “Once my emotive line has modelled the light of my white paper, without destroying its precious whiteness,” he observed, “I can neither add nor take anything away. If it is not adequate, there is no alternative than to begin again, as if it were an acrobatic feat” (“Notes of a Painter on his Drawing,” in ibid., p. 131). Such energy is evident in works such as Buste de jeune femme nue, which possess a palpable dynamism and vigor. As Matisse would tell his students, “Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence” (quoted in J. Elderfield, The Drawings of Henri Matisse, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1984, p. 10).
Henri Matisse
Executed in 1950, Henri Matisse’s Buste de jeune femme nue is a study in elegance. Using only a few, minimal lines, Matisse nevertheless conjures an entire individual, shown wearing nothing but a slim necklace. As the artist explained of his methods, “One must always search for the desire of the line, where it wishes to enter or where to die away. Also always be sure of its source; this must be done from the model” (quoted in “Sarah Stein’s Notes,” in J. Flam, ed., Matisse on Art, Berkeley, 1995, p. 48). The resulting portrait is striking, and with its eloquent, calligraphic contours, Buste de jeune femme nue reveals a painterly approach to line.
Indeed, in many ways, the late ink drawings represent a union of the artist’s graphic and painterly practices, and across creamy sheets of paper, Matisse confidently outlined his subjects. “Once my emotive line has modelled the light of my white paper, without destroying its precious whiteness,” he observed, “I can neither add nor take anything away. If it is not adequate, there is no alternative than to begin again, as if it were an acrobatic feat” (“Notes of a Painter on his Drawing,” in ibid., p. 131). Such energy is evident in works such as Buste de jeune femme nue, which possess a palpable dynamism and vigor. As Matisse would tell his students, “Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence” (quoted in J. Elderfield, The Drawings of Henri Matisse, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1984, p. 10).