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JEAN-FRANÇOIS HEIM
TABLEAUX - DESSINS - SCULPTURES
HENRI MATISSE
Cateau-Cambrésis 1869 - Nice 1954
French School
PENSIVE YOUNG WOMAN
Pen and ink on paper
H. 525 mm; W. 405 mm
Signed and dated lower left: H Matisse 41
DATE: 1941
PROVENANCE:
Waddington Galleries Ltd., London
Private collection, Switzerland, from 1985
Christie’s London, 27 June 1995, lot 194
Private collection, Germany, since July 2013
The work has been authenticated by Wanda de Guébriant.
Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence. Matisse
Unanimously considered to be one of the greatest artists of his time, Henri Matisse
was one of the promotors of Fauvism, a revolution in colour at the beginning of the 20th
century. However, even if colour is predominant in his work throughout his career, his art is a
reflection on the line, on balance, and the synthesis of forms.
An enthusiastic draughtsman and prolific printmaker (the corpus contains over 800
prints), Matisse illustrated 17 books in the 1930s and 1940s.
His drawings from the beginning of the 1940s are characterized by clear, crisp lines
with no hatching or shades, describing the purified forms of female figures and still lifes.
Later, towards the end of the 1940s, the line became thicker and his forms more simplified.
Ancienne adresse : Utengasse 52, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
Nouvelle adresse à partir d’avril : ANDLAUER HOF, MÜNSTERPLATZ 17, 4051 BASEL, SWITZERLAND
Phone +41 61 681 35 35 - Mobile +41 78 955 77 77
Fax +41 61 681 75 70 - [email protected] - www.galerieheim.ch
JEAN-FRANÇOIS HEIM
TABLEAUX - DESSINS - SCULPTURES
In 1941, Matisse began to work on a group of 158 drawings, published under the title
of in Themes and Variations 1943.1 In this ensemble, female figures in poses very close to our
drawing can be found.
Henri Matisse, Theme C Variation 6, Head of a Woman 1941,
pen and ink on paper, H. 406 mm; W. 524 mm, signed lower
right: C6 / Henri Matisse, private collection.
In 1940, the writer Henry de Montherlant posed for a portrait by Matisse and
suggested they collaborate. Matisse had greatly admired his Pasiphaé, Chant de Minos
(published in 1936), about the ancient myth of Pasiphae, wife of Minos the king of Crete, who
refused to sacrifice a beautiful white bull to Poseidon. In revenge, Poseidon made Pasiphae
fall in love with the beast and she gave birth to Minotaur, half-man, half-bull. Matisse began
to work on the illustrations for the play as early as 1941. This intense work on a theme from
Greek mythology, undoubtedly upheld the artist’s interest in purified forms such those found
on ancient Greek vases of the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.
Epinetron from Eretria (Alcestis Hippolytus), 425 B.C., Athens,
National Archaeological Museum
1
Louis Aragon, Martin Fabiani (éd.), Henri Matisse. Dessins: Thèmes et Variations, Paris, 1943.
Ancienne adresse : Utengasse 52, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
Nouvelle adresse à partir d’avril : ANDLAUER HOF, MÜNSTERPLATZ 17, 4051 BASEL, SWITZERLAND
Phone +41 61 681 35 35 - Mobile +41 78 955 77 77
Fax +41 61 681 75 70 - [email protected] - www.galerieheim.ch