HENRI MATISSE

(1869-1954)

Portrait de femme

Footnotes

The authenticity of this work was confirmed by the late Wanda de Guébriant.

Provenance
Louis Aragon Collection, Paris.
Acquired from the above by the previous owner (circa 1978-1981); their sale, Christie's, London, 8 February 2007, lot 565.
Dr Paul Cushman, Jr. Collection, US (acquired at the above sale).
Thence by descent to the present owner.

This work was drawn by the artist on the back of the cover of E. Tériade's Verve: revue artistique et littéraire (Vol. IV, no. 13, Paris, 1945).


Dr Paul Cushman, Jr. epitomised the modern Renaissance man. A pioneering and compassionate physician at the forefront of treating opiate addiction, he was also a historical biographer of early Americans, a masterful bridge player, and a connoisseur of fine and performance arts.

Born in New York City to Paul Cushman, Sr., a stockbroker and children's welfare advocate, and Cordelia Hepburn, a civic and welfare leader, both art collectors, Dr Cushman was exposed to the arts and the importance of service early in life. In addition to attending The Buckley School, Exeter, Yale, and Columbia Medical School, Dr Cushman served in the US Air Force as a medical officer. While stationed abroad in England, he met and married Paulette Bessire.

Following his service, Dr Cushman returned to New York and became a devoted researcher and early champion of methadone for the treatment of opiate addiction. A founder of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, Dr Cushman ran one of the best regarded methadone clinics in New York in the 1970s and helped to treat thousands of people struggling with addiction. As a Professor of Medicine at the Medical Colleges of Wisconsin and Virginia, he worked to integrate substance abuse medicine into medical school curricula.

In addition to an impressive medical career, Dr Cushman was an avid patron of the arts, including opera, ballet, and collecting fine paintings. His collection of Hudson River School paintings, which celebrate the grandeur of the American Landscape at the height of western expansion, includes impressive works by James Buttersworth, Asher B. Durand, George Inness, John F. Kensett, and Thomas Moran. This group of paintings is complemented by works by European masters Henri Matisse, Édouard Vuillard, and Maurice Utrillo.

The present work, Portrait de femme by Henri Matisse, was once part of the collection of the celebrated poet Louis Aragon, with whom Matisse had a close friendship. Aragon wrote extensively on the artist's work, and he was also one of the founding members of the Surrealist movement together with André Breton.

During the mature phase of his career, Matisse executed a series of pencil drawings wherein he captured his fascination for the human countenance and proved yet again his masterful draughtsmanship. In Portrait de femme, the swift lines on the bright white paper unfold as a play of positive and negative space. Drawn from close by, Matisse gives the portrait a certain layer of directness and intimacy, connoting a close relationship between the artist and sitter.

The artist himself explained: 'My line drawing is the purest and most direct translation of my emotion. Simplification of means allows that. But those drawings are more complete than they appear to some people who confuse them with a sketch. They generate light; looked at in poor, or indirect light, they contain not only quality and sensibility, but also light and difference in values corresponding obviously to colour.... Once I have put my emotion to line and modelled the light of my white paper, without destroying its endearing whiteness, I can add or take away nothing further' (Matisse quoted in V.I. Carlson (ed.), Matisse as a Draughtsman, exh. cat., Baltimore, 1971, p. 18).

The model for the present work was Elvire van Hyfte, who also sat for Matisse when he painted the resplendent composition L'Asie that same year in Vence (currently housed within the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas). She is recognisable in both works from her strongly defined brow, almond-shaped eyes and delicate, plump lips. Born in the Belgian Congo in 1920, van Hyfte met Matisse in the South of France and enjoyed a long friendship with him, becoming an enduring source of refined beauty in his final series of oil paintings.