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HENRI MATISSE
1869-1954
TETE DE JEANNETTE III
Signed HM, stamped with the foundry mark C. Valsuani cire perdue and
numbered 7
Bronze, rich dark brown and black patina
Height 23 in. 58.4 cm.
Conceived at Issy-les-Moulineaux in 1911 and cast in 1953.
Provenance
Galerie Samlaren, Agnes Widlund, Stockholm
Theodor Ahrenberg, Stockholm (sold: Sotheby's, London, July 7, 1960, lot 32)
The Hanover Gallery, London, (acquired at the above sale)
Galerie de L'ElysEe (Alex Maguy), Paris
Acquired by the present owner from the above in November 1965
Exhibited
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Henri Matisse, das Plastische Werk, 1959, no. 45
Literature
Herbert Maryon, Modern Sculpture, London, 1933, fig. 214, illustration of another cast pl. CXVI
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Matisse, His Art and His Public, New York, 1951, illustration of another cast p. 369
Monroe Wheeler and Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Henri Matisse (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Cleveland Museum of Art; The Art Institute of Chicago; San Francisco Museum of Art, 1951-52, no. 94, catalogued p. 11
An Exhibition of the Sculpture of Matisse and Three Paintings with Studies (exhibition catalogue), Tate Gallery, London, 1953, no. 37, listed p. 13
RenE Huyghe, Henri Matisse, Paris, 1953, illustration of another cast pl. 32
Henri Matisse, Skulpturer, Malerier, Farveklip (exhibition catalogue), Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1953, no. 36, illustration of another cast p. 29
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Masters of Modern Art, New York, 1954, illustration of another cast p. 50
Matisse, Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1955, no. 36, illustration of another cast p. 6
Pierre Lubecker, Henri Matisse 1869-1954, Copenhagen, 1955, illustration of another cast pl. 32
Franco Russoli, "I disegni di Matisse," La Biennale di Venezia, December 1955, illustration of another cast p. 33
Herbert Read, "The Sculpture of Matisse," Henri Matisse (exhibition catalogue), UCLA Art Galleries; The Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966, no. 118, illustration of another cast p. 132
Jean Guichard-Meili, Henri Matisse, son oeuvre, son univers, Paris, 1967, fig. 170, illustration of another cast p. 175
Henry H. Arnason, History of Modern Art, Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, New York, 1968, illustration of another cast pl. 184
Pierre Schneider, Henri Matisse, Exposition du Centenaire (exhibition catalogue), Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1970, no. 240C, illustration of another cast p. 289
Hanne Finsen, Matisse, en retrospektive udstilling (exhibition catalogue), Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, 1970, no. 76, illustration of another cast
Mario Luzi and Massimo Carr 1/2, L'Opera di Matisse dalla rivolta fauve all'intimismo 1904-1928, Milan, 1971, fig. S14, illustration of another cast p. 108
Albert E. Elsen, The Sculpture of Henri Matisse, New York, 1972, figs. 173-74, illustration of another cast p. 128
Alicia Legg, The Sculpture of Matisse (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1972, no. 44, illustration of another cast p. 30
Donald E. Gordon, Modern Art Exhibitions 1900-1916, Munich, 1974, fig. 1132, illustration of another cast p. 237
Hilton Kramer, "Matisse: The Sculpture," The Age of the Avant-Garde, London, 1974, pp. 216-217
William Tucker, The Language of Sculpture, London, 1974, fig. 89, illustration of another cast p. 95
Karel J. Geirlandt and Dominique Bozo, Henri Matisse, Dessins et Sculpture/Tekeningen en Sculpturen (exhibition catalogue), Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1975, no. 198, catalogued
Henri Matisse, dessins et sculpture (exhibition catalogue), MusEe National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1975, no. 206, illustration of another cast p. 223
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Painting and Sculpture in The Museum of Modern Art 1926-1927, New York, 1977, illustration of another cast p. 53
John Elderfield, Matisse in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1978, illustration of another cast p. 69
Antonina Izerghina, Henri Matisse, Paintings and Sculptures in Soviet Museums, Leningrad, 1978, illustration of another cast p. 156
Lawrence Gowing, Matisse, London, 1979, fig. 75, illustration of another cast p. 91
Matisse (exhibition catalogue), National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 1981, no. 101, illustration of another cast p. 225
Douglas Mannering, The Art of Matisse, New York, 1982, illustration of another cast p. 38
Pierre Schneider, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Matisse, 1904-1928, Paris, 1982, no. S14, illustration of another cast p. 111
Pierre Schneider, Henri Matisse (exhibition catalogue), Kunsthaus, Zurich; Stadtische Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf, 1982-83, no. 116, illustration of another cast
p. 304
Michael P. Mezzatesta, Henri Matisse, Sculptor/Painter (exhibition catalogue), Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1984, no. 24c, illustrations of another cast pp. 15 and 89
Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, The Sculpture of Henri Matisse (exhibition catalogue), Edinburgh City Art Centre; Hayward Gallery, London; City Art Gallery, Leeds, 1984, no. 46, illlustrations of another cast pls. 46 and 46a
Pierre Schneider, Matisse, Paris, 1984, illustration of another cast p. 552
Henri Matisse (exhibition catalogue), Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1984-85, no. 166
Jack Flam, Matisse, the Man and His Art, 1869-1918, Ithaca, 1986, figs. 320 and 424, illustrations of another cast pp. 315-318
Pierre Schneider, Henri Matisse: Matisse et l'Italie (exhibition catalogue), Ala Napoleonica and Museo Correr, Venice, 1987, no. S42, illustration of another cast p. 182
Jack Flam, Matisse, a Retrospective, New York, 1988, illustration of another cast
p. 147
Jack Cowart et al., Matisse in Morocco, the Paintings and Drawings, 1912-1913 (exhibition catalogue), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow; The State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, 1990-91, illustration of the plaster in the 1913 Bernheim-Jeune exhibition installation p. 12
Xavier Girard and Sandor Kuthy, Henri Matisse, 1869-1954, Skulpturen und Druckgraphik/Sculptures et Gravures (exhibition catalogue), Kunstmuseum, Berne, 1990-91, fig. 40, illustration of another cast p. 75
Gilles NEret, Matisse, Paris, 1991, fig. 113, illustration of another cast p. 72
Henri Matisse, Drawings and Sculpture (exhibition catalogue), Saarland Museum, Saarbrucken, 1991, no. 126, illustration of another cast n. p.
Sarah Wilson, Matisse, Barcelona, 1992, fig. 91, illustration of another cast n. p.
John Elderfield, Henri Matisse, a Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992-93, no. 138, illustration of another cast p. 214
Dominique FourAade, Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, Yve-Alain Bois, Henri Matisse, 1904-1917 (exhibition catalogue), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1993, no. 92, illustration of another cast p. 302
Pierre Schneider, Matisse, Paris, 1993, illustration of another cast p. 552
Guy-Patrice and Michel Dauberville, Matisse: Henri Matisse chez Bernheim-Jeune, Catalogue des Oeuvres REpertoriEes, nos. 261 to 798, Paris, 1995, no. 794, illustration of another cast
p. 1413
Claude Duthuit and Wanda de GuEbriant, Henri Matisse, Catalogue raisonnE de l'oeuvre sculptE, Paris, 1997, no. 52, illustrations of another cast pp. 146, 147 and 149 (for an exhaustive bibliography for this work, please see pp. 326-37, 343, and 360)
Yve-Alain Bois, Matisse and Picasso, a Gentle Rivalry (exhibition catalogue), Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1999, no. 41, illustration of another cast p. 59
Jack Flam, Henri Matisse, Sculpture (exhibition catalogue), C&M Arts, New York, 1998, no. 17, illustration of another cast
Gilles NEret, Henri Matisse, Cologne, 1999, illustration of another cast p. 66
When Matisse started work on T 7/16te de Jeannette I in 1910, he had made a number of small, highly individualized sculptures of heads although only one life-size bust, Buste ancien, in 1900. In the decade between the two portraits, Matisse's most ambitious sculptures were devoted to the human figure. Although not large in scale, sculptures such as Nu couchE I (Aurore), 1907, Deux nEgresses, 1907, and Figure dEcorative, 1908 (see lot 228), were among the most formally innovative of all the sculpture produced in the first decade of the century. In the sequence of sculptures Jeannette I-V, however, Matisse achieved in the traditional form of the sculpted portrait bust transformations as radical as any in his immediately preceding figural sculptures.
Matisse met Jeanne Vaderin, the model for the sequence of heads, early in 1910. According to Madame Matisse in her conversations with Alfred H. Barr, she was a young woman who was staying at Clamart while recovering from an illness. Her appearance evidently appealed to the artist as, in addition to the series of busts, she was used as the model for Jeune fille aux tulipes (Jeanne Vaderin), 1910 (The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), Harmonie en rouge, 1908 and a charcoal drawing (The Museum of Modern Art, New York). In a questionnaire submitted to the artist when Alfred H. Barr was researching his classic study, Matisse His Art and His Public, Matisse stated his belief that he made four, perhaps all five of the heads within a single year at Issy-les Moulineaux. However, it is now generally accepted that Jeannette I and II date from 1910, Jeannette III (the present work) and Jeannette IV from 1911 and Jeannette V, the final work in the sequence,
from 1913.
According to Madame Matisse, the first two busts in the sequence were done directly from the model. Unwilling yet to take the liberties with the human head that he had in his figure sculptures, Matisse adopted a relatively restrained approach that was less formally inventive than some of the small heads of the first decade. In Jeannette II, Matisse attempted to overcome what he must have perceived as the timidity of the first version. As Albert E. Elsen observed: "The hair style was rearranged, possibly at the sculptor's suggestion. The eyebrows were made less obtrusive by being better integrated with the eye socket, brow and nose, and the eyes themselves are more responsive to light changes and evocative of mood. The profile from the hairline to the tip of the nose becomes less undulating, and so forth. Frontally, however, Jeannette II lacks the vigorous, scaled accents of the Head with Necklace. The increased overall animation did not result in sufficient distinctiveness of design" (Albert E. Elsen, The Sculpture of Henri Matisse, New York, 1972, p. 124).
A remarkable transformation occurred with Jeannette III, the present work. The small, hastily drawn sketch of a head to the left of the sheet in the Museum of Modern Art, referenced above, shows Matisse attempting to clarify the forms of his model, to move away from the naturalism that had characterized the first two heads. In 1908 Matisse had advised his students to remember that "All things have their decided physical character - for instance a square, and a rectangle. But an undecided, indefinite form can express neither one. Therefore exaggerate according to the definite character for expression. You may consider this Negro model as a cathedral, built up of parts which form a solid, noble, towering construction - and as a lobster, because of the shell-like, tense muscular parts which fit so accurately and evidently into one another, with joints only large enough to hold their bones. But from time to time it is very necessary for you to remember that he is a Negro and not lose him and yourself in your construction" (quoted in Alfred H. Barr, Jr.,"Matisse speaks to his students, 1908; Notes by Sarah Stein," Matisse: His Art and His Public, New York, 1951, p. 550).
Since he was no longer working from the model when he started working on the third state, formal considerations began to take precedence, including references to other works of art. Among Matisse's treasured possessions was an original plaster of Rodin's bust of Henri Rochefort, which he bought from Ambroise Vollard at the same time as the Trois baigneuses by CEzanne. Imposing in scale and forceful in characterization, Rodin's bust suggested to Matisse how it might be possible to fuse the demands of portraiture with sculptural audacity.
In the fourth head in the sequence, Jeannette IV, Albert E. Elsen observed that Matisse "threw aside in the next study all that had been so painstakingly earned. Perhaps it had been too painstaking, for he then proceeded to rework the head rapidly and thereby achieve a tighter integration of the parts - in short, to forget previous details and to work for broader masses and rhythm" (ibid., p. 132). Rather than using the fourth state as the reference point for the final head in the sequence, Jeannette V, Matisse worked from a plaster cast of Jeannette III, cutting away the hair, the back of the head, and the woman's left eye, and synthesizing the nose, brow and pompadour into a single gourd-shaped form.
For Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Matisse's five heads of Jeanette were "one of his most extraordinary works"(ibid., p. 140). Certainly, only by viewing the five versions together is it possible to fully comprehend the single-minded concentration with which Matisse developed the forms of his sculpture over a period of two years. However, Pierre Schneider has remarked that "the impression one gets from looking at them together is that they form a process rather than a progression. They are not successive stages leading up to a final version. The word "series" has its dangers; it suggests a gradual perfecting, and this is something that was alien to Matisse. His series do not consist of successive stages, but of interdependent states, each of which is equally final yet temporary. The effect - and probably intention - of these multiple representations is that no single one is identified exclusively with the artist's vision"(Pierre Schneider, Matisse, New York, 1984, p. 562).
NO. 0: Private Collection, cast circa 1930
NO. 00: MusEe Matisse, Nice, cast in 1969
NO. 1/10: Private Collection, cast circa 1930
NO. 2/10: Private Collection, cast in 1952
NO. 3/10: Private Collection, cast in 1952
NO. 4/10: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, cast in 1952
NO. 5/10: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, cast c. 1930
NO. 6/10: Private Collection, cast in 1984
NO. 8/10: Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, cast in 1954
NO. 9/10: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., cast in 1966
NO. 10/10: Private Collection, cast in 1958