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• The Artist and the Nude Model

• Henri Matisse

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• L'artiste et le modèle nu
  Painted in Nice in 1921
  Oil on canvas
  23 5/8 x 28 3/4 in. (60 x 73 cm.)
  
  L'artiste et le modèle nu shows one of the most celebrated subjects painted by Henri Matisse: the artist and his model. This picture was painted during the early years of Matisse's time in Nice and sings with a sense of light, warmth and sensuality. The painter himself is shown within the composition, looking at the nude reclining, her body's forms sinuously tumbling down the chair, within the rich decorative tapestry of the room. A window opens onto the promenade, showing the crown of a palm tree, while textiles within the room create an intriguing rhythmic impression, resulting in a symphonic progression of colourful notations, some of them verticals like the struts of the chair and the stripes of the pyjamas, others more like organic arabesques - most of all, the model herself, who is so clearly the focus of the composition. Looking at L'artiste et le modèle nu, and taking into account the relative scarcity of pictures showing the artist in the act of painting, it is unsurprising to find that it has featured in almost every major exhibition and monograph of Matisse's work from the last few decades, and indeed was shown publically only shortly after its execution. Despite the extensive literature surrounding this picture, it has changed hands only a few times: it was first owned by the celebrated American collector John Quinn; it was then acquired at his posthumous auction by Ruth and Harry Bakwin, in whose hands it remained for almost six decades until it was bought by the present owner.
  
  L'artiste et le modèle nu has been ascribed two different dates in the various books and shows which have featured it. The catalogue entry for the exhibition held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. in 1986 is indicative of the two positions: it states that the Archives Henri Matisse were 'inclined to date the painting April 1921' while they themselves, looking at the imagery, prefer a date of 1919, two years earlier (J. Cowart & D. Fourcade, Henri Matisse: The Early Years in Nice 1916-1930, exh. cat., Washington, DC & New York, 1986, p. 293). However, in the more recent biography of Matisse written by Hilary Spurling, the basis of the Archives' opinion became apparent: she explained that this was a picture showing one of Matisse's most important models during his first years in Nice, Antoinette Arnoud: 'He painted her for the last time in The Painter and His Model, posting off a sketch to his wife and daughter in triumph the day after the picture was finished, 24 April 1921' (H. Spurling, Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Conquest of Colour, 1909-1954, London, 2005, p. 240).
  
  Matisse's sense of triumph after painting L'artiste et le modèle nu would partly have been due to its rich tapestry of colours, and partly due to its theme. The picture shows the artist at work, painting, introducing an intriguing perspective onto the creative act. Matisse had depicted himself in the act of painting a few times by this point, be it in his self-portrait of 1918, now in the Musée Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, or in works which, like L'artiste et le modèle nu, show him within his studio, as though seen by a third party. These include Le peintre dans son atelier of 1916-17, now in the Musée national d'Art moderne, Paris, and La le?on de peinture, ou La séance de peinture of 1919 in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. In contrast to those images showing the artist in the act of painting, in L'artiste et le modèle nu he has paid more attention to himself: he is no longer a tangential, even spectral presence, but is instead more roundly delineated, with attention paid to his red hair and beard, his glasses and the pyjamas in which he often worked.
  
  Matisse leads our eye into the realm of his studio, the theatre set in which he has conjured his universe of sensuality and colour. In depicting himself, he brings our attention to the entire fictive nature of art and of creation, tapping into a long tradition that stretches back to Jan van Eyck's possible cameo appearance in the Arnolfini Wedding in the National Gallery, London and Diego Velasquez' masterpiece Las Meninas in the Prado, Madrid. In L'artiste et le modèle nu, Matisse is shown with his back to the viewer, as though painted by someone else, insisting upon the artifice of the scene. This was already evident in the 1916-17 picture; however, there, the entire focus was upon the model, a flash of emerald against a purple chair which blaze out among the cooler colours that dominate the composition, and which are repeated on the canvas-within-the-canvas. Even the artist is shown as a mere silhouette, subsumed by the general composition.
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Other paintings by Henri Matisse:

Fruits

Peonies (Les Pivoines)

Cuckoo Clocks, Blue and Pink Carpets

Antique and Grommets