Henri Matisse - Editions & Works on Paper New York Tuesday, April 16, 2024 | Phillips

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  • “What I am after is expression…Expression to my way of thinking does not consist of the passion mirrored upon a human face or betrayed by a violent gesture. The whole arrangement of my picture is expressive.”
    —Henri Matisse

    Matisse embraces the expressiveness of bodily abstraction in Le grand nu. The anonymity of the featureless women removes her from the realities of the human form yet maintains its intimate effect. Matisse explores the tonal range of lithography through lines built up with each crevice and shadow, evoking a rich charcoal-like depth. The contrast calls attention bright highlights of the woman’s arm, legs, and stomach – adding dimension and form to the woman’s supple form. As the woman’s arms curve and bend behind her neck, her legs cross, pulled toward her stomach in almost a gesture of self-consciousness, her body curled in onto herself. 

     

    Though Matisse created prints throughout his career, 1906 was a particularly robust year for his lithographs exploring the female form. Matisse typically used printmaking to unwind after rigorous and extended periods of painting and that same year he completed his canonical painting Le Bonheur de vivre. Le grand nu is the only print from this period where he drew directly onto the stone, celebrating the lush surface of the limestone, while the rest of his images were drafted on paper first then transferred. Today, Le grand nu is among Matisse’s most celebrated prints, held in the collections of many renowned museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Musée Matisse, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

    • Literature

      Claude Duthuit 403

    • Artist Biography

      Henri Matisse

      French • 1869 - 1954

      The leading figure of the Fauvist movement at the turn of the 20th century, Henri Matisse is widely regarded as the giant of modern art alongside friend and rival Pablo Picasso. Working as a painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor for over five decades, he radically challenged traditional conventions in art by experimenting with vivid colors, flat shapes and distilled line. Rather than modeling or shading to lend volume to his pictures, the French artist employed contrasting areas of unmodulated color. Heavily influenced by the art and visual culture of non-Western cultures, his subjects ranged from nudes, dancers, odalisques, still lifes and interior scenes and later evolved into the graphic semi-abstractions of his cut-outs of his late career. 

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110

Le Grand nu (The Large Nude) (D. 403)

1906
Lithograph, on China paper, with margins.
I. 10 5/8 x 10 in. (27 x 25.4 cm)
S. 17 3/8 x 13 5/8 in. (34 x 34.6 cm)

Signed and annotated 'tirage à cinquante exempl. epreuve dix huit.' in black ink (the 18th proof, the edition was 50), unframed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$8,000 - 12,000 

Sold for $7,620

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Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 16 - 17 April