Additional information
| Artist | Matisse |
|---|---|
| Country | French |
| Region | European |
ArtistMatisse, Henri
Artist Years1865-1954
Artist NationalityFrench
TitleMlle. M.M. (Marguerite Matisse)
Year1920
MediumPrint > Etching
DimensionsPlate: 5.5 X 3.8 inches
Sheet: 12 X 8 inches
Catalog ReferenceDuthuit 2
Description
Original etching, frontispiece to Cinquante Dessins, signed with pen & ink, printed on heavy, felt-finish, cream wove paper. Self-published by Matisse and his friend Victor Jacquemin, Paris, 1920, edition 1000.
(lib-8a)
NotesIn 1920, when Matisse was fifty and now living in Nice for the winter months of each year, he arranged to have published a book called Cinquante Dessins, which illustrated a large selection of drawings, almost all done recently. It was a sort of anniversary present to himself: fifty drawings at fifty years of age. The wording of the title page shows that Matisse both selected the drawings and determined their sequence. They are studies from female models, usually clothed, and most are drawn with a fine, medium-hard pencil on dense, smooth paper, producing a light, silvery effect, especially in those cases (which predominate) where the figures are quite densely worked, for then they seem bathed in a curiously unreal, disembodying light. ...... They show a nineteen-year-old model known as Antoinette. Drawings of Antoinette dominate Cinquante Dessins. It is a virtual anthology of her attributes and appearances.
(source: John Elderfield, The Drawings of Henri Matisse, 1984)