Female Nude Seated on the Ground
artist
Henri Matisse
(Le Cateau-Cambrésis, 1869 - 1954, Nice)
Date1908-1909
Place MadeFrance, Europe
MediumGraphite on wove paper
Dimensions31.4 x 24.1 cm (12 3/8 x 9 1/2 in.)
ClassificationsDrawings
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession number1.3.o.34
eMuseum ID725093
Original Number2.3.r.96
EmbARK ObjectID12418
TMS Source ID1542
Last Updated10/3/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIsabella's Back Bay neighbor and rival for the title of leading art patroness in Boston, Sarah Sears had her eye on Matisse as a "comer." Sears was an accomplished watercolorist who had taken up photography in the early 1890s and been accepted into Alfred Stieglitz's Photo-Secession. After the death of her husband in 1905, she spent an extended period in Paris where she amassed cutting-edge works by Manet, Cezanne, Degas, and her friend Mary Cassatt, and met Matisse through the Steins (Leo, Gertrude, Sarah, and Michael). Whether she acquired this drawing of a reclining nude that she gave to Isabella from the artist, from his Parisian dealers, or from the shows that Stieglitz mounted in 1908 and 1910 cannot be determined. In any event, this modest study evinced the radical rupture with classical ideals of female beauty that shocked early viewers of Matisse's work and undoubtedly appealed to Gardner's self-image as an opponent of prudishness and hypocritical morality. Isabella loaned this drawing to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for exhibition in late January 1911.
BibliographyNotes"Loans Recieved in 1911." Annual Report of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, vol. 36 (Boston, 1912), p. 160. (as "Drawing, by Henri Matisse")
Rollin van N. Hadley (ed.). Drawings: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1968), p. 66.
Karen E. Haas. "Henri Matisse: 'A Magnificent Draughtsman.'" Fenway Court (1985), pp. 36-49, fig. 11. (as 1908-1909)
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), pp. 220-21, ill. (about 1906-1907)
Marilyn Kushner et al. The Armory Show at 100: Modernism and Revolution. Exh. cat. (New York: New-York Historical Society, 2013), pp. 386-87, fig. 301. (as 1908-1909)
Rollin van N. Hadley (ed.). Drawings: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1968), p. 66.
Karen E. Haas. "Henri Matisse: 'A Magnificent Draughtsman.'" Fenway Court (1985), pp. 36-49, fig. 11. (as 1908-1909)
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), pp. 220-21, ill. (about 1906-1907)
Marilyn Kushner et al. The Armory Show at 100: Modernism and Revolution. Exh. cat. (New York: New-York Historical Society, 2013), pp. 386-87, fig. 301. (as 1908-1909)
MarksNotesSigned in graphite (recto, lower right): Henri-Mattise
Inscribed (on a label of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston affixed to the back of the frame): 37.11 / Henri Matisse. / Lent by Mrs. J.L. Gardner
Inscribed (on a label affixed to the back of the frame): COURET & KAISER / Dorure et Encadrements / 39, Boulevard de Clichy, 39 / Paris
Inscribed in pencil (back of the mat): Given to Mrs. Gardner by Mrs. J. Montgomery Sears
Inscribed (on a label of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston affixed to the back of the frame): 37.11 / Henri Matisse. / Lent by Mrs. J.L. Gardner
Inscribed (on a label affixed to the back of the frame): COURET & KAISER / Dorure et Encadrements / 39, Boulevard de Clichy, 39 / Paris
Inscribed in pencil (back of the mat): Given to Mrs. Gardner by Mrs. J. Montgomery Sears
ProvenanceNotesProbably purchased by the painter and photographer Mrs. Joshua Montgomery Sears Jr. (Sarah Choate, 1858-1935) 1908-1910.
Gift from Sarah Choate Sears to Isabella Stewart Gardner in about 1910.
Gift from Sarah Choate Sears to Isabella Stewart Gardner in about 1910.
