Signature: Hand signed
Edition: Original drawing
Medium: Mixed Media 
Year: 1939-40
26h x 25 1/8w in. framed
Price: $22,950
Inventory Name: MAT0522OD03

This beautiful drawing from 1939-40 is an exquisite example of the artist's works in charcoal/pencil mixed media, enhanced with the technique of shading also known as 'estompe'. Amongst the artist's most expressive media, in his own words, '…charcoal or stump drawing ... allows me to consider simultaneously the character of the model, her human expression, the quality of surrounding light, the atmosphere and all that can only be expressed by drawing' (Notes of a Painter, 1939). This drawing was among the first to be executed during Matisse's famous residence at the Hotel Regina in Nice. The artist embarked on the series of drawings early January 1939, with the intention of producing a painting on the theme, but no final canvas was ever produced. The subject matter is unusually intimate for Matisse, whose modernist creations often omitted personal references to focus on colour and form.
The female subject to the left is recognized as Lydia Délectorskaya, the Russian beauty that served as his closest ally during the last three decades of his life. Their professional and personal collaboration resulted in some of the artist's most iconic paintings and Délectorskaya assisted Matisse in the creation of his 'cut-outs' executed from the late 1940s.

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