- Museum number
- 1926,0313.186
- Title
- Object: Nu au coussin bleu (Nude with blue cushion)
- Description
-
Woman seated, whole-length, leaning back with arms above head. 1924
Lithograph
- Production date
- 1924
- Dimensions
-
Height: 620 millimetres
-
Width: 480 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Text from Stephen Coppel, 'Picasso and Printmaking in Paris', (exh.cat.), South Bank Centre, 1998, no.48.
The model was Henriette Darricarrère, a local girl from Nice, who had a flair for play-acting Matisse's fantasy of the odalisque. Matisse, who employed her from 1920 to 1927, later wrote:
`My models, human figures, are never just "extras" in an interior. They are the principal theme of my work. I depend absolutely on my model, whom I observe at liberty, and then I decide on the pose which best suits 'her nature' ... then I become a slave of that pose' (Matisse, `Notes of a Painter on his Drawing, (1939) in Flam 1995, p. 131).
Fascinated by this pose of the model seated with arms raised above her head and one leg raised, Matisse also used it in a closely related painting of the same title, also executed in 1924, and in another lithograph of the same composition made a year later, where the armchair is draped with a floral pattern. It also appeared in a bronze sculpture 'Grand nu assis' (Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis), made in 1925.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1997 May-Sep, BM, Printmaking in Paris, no.71
1998 July-Sep, Glasgow, Hunterian AG, (Sth Bank Tour), Picasso, no.48
1999 Jan-Mar, Newcastle, Hatton AG, Picasso/Printmaking in Paris
1999 Mar-May, Warrington MAG, Picasso/Printmaking in Paris
1999 May-July, Bristol, Arnolfini, Picasso/Printmaking in Paris
1999 July-Sep, Nottingham Castle MAG, Picasso/Printmaking in Paris
2015-2016 4 Dec-27 Mar, Korea, Seoul Arts Centre, Human Image
2022 28 Jun - 9 Oct, Zaragoza, Caixa Forum, “Human Image”
2022 -2023 22 Nov - 9 Apr, Palma, Caixa Forum, “Human Image”
2023 4 July - 22 Oct, Barcelona, Caixa Forum, “Human Image”
- Acquisition date
- 1926
- Acquisition notes
- According to the CAS card, this was purchased from Bernheim Jeune on 26 June 1925 for £4.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1926,0313.186