Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Woman Resting in an Interior

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Henri Matisse
1869-1954

Woman Resting in an Interior

October 1941
15 15/16 x 20 3/4 inches (40.5 x 52.7 cm)
Charcoal, with stumping, on cream wove paper
2023.77

Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray.

Notes
In 1941, while convalescing from a serious illness, Matisse devised a fresh approach to his interest in repeated motifs: a drawing series that he would publish in 1943 as Themes and Variations. Comprising 162 drawings organized into 17 groups, the series mostly depicts female figures reclining or relaxing in chairs. This sheet is characterized by the contrasts of charcoal and paper and of flatness and depth, as well as by its fluid, energetic line. Other studies in Themes and Variations use a much sparer line to render their subject. As a whole, the series demonstrates the artist's commitment to capturing a drawing's essence through serial reworking.
Watermark: ARCHES
Inscriptions/Markings
Signed and dated recto, lower right, in black pencil: "Henri Matisse / 10/41;" inscribed lower right in graphite (framer's mark?): "11 x ?;" upper right, in black pencil: "xx".
Classification
Century Drawings