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HENRI MATISSE
French, 1869-1954
Portrait of Alexina Matisse,
1938
Charcoal. 23 3/4 x 15 5/8 in. (60 x 40 cm)
Gift of William Benedict, Class of 1929, and Mrs. Benedict. 69.167
This portrait is one of a series of sketches Matisse made of his
son Pierre's wife Alexina (later married to Marcel Duchamp) throughout 1938.
In this drawing we see the artist's thought process as he redraws a line
here, elaborates there, smudges areas for shading, and creates a work at
once calculated and informal, seemingly spontaneous. Matisse often used
his sketches as preliminary studies for paintings, but in this series they
keep their autonomous quality. |
