Lorette with Turban, Yellow Jacket

1917

Henri Matisse

Artist, French, 1869 - 1954

Shown from the chest up, a woman with a pale, peachy skin wears a turban and a goldenrod-yellow jacket in this stylized, vertical portrait painting. Many of the features and forms are outlined in gray and filled in with areas of mottled color so brushstrokes are visible. The woman’s shoulders face us, and she tips her head a little to our right. One brown eye, to our left, seems to look at us, and the other might look off over our right shoulder. Her nose is indicated with a wavy line for a pointed tip, and her small pink lips are closed. She has a square jaw and a narrow chin. Black hair curls over her ears. The rest of her hair is covered by a turban, which touches the top edge of the composition and is pale pink to our left and ivory white to our right. Her yellow garment is fastened at her throat and has rows of darker gold circles, perhaps buttons or other trim, down the open front over a white shirt. The papaya-orange corners of a square-backed chair is behind her shoulders, about halfway up the picture. The background is streaked with laurel green, flax, and lemonade yellow to our left, and deepens to dark, pewter gray to our right. The artist signed and dated the painting with olive-green script in the upper left corner: “Henri-Matisse 1917.”
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On View

East Building Ground Level, Gallery 103-E


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on wood

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 61.3 x 49.4 cm (24 1/8 x 19 7/16 in.)
    framed: 87.3 x 75.2 cm (34 3/8 x 29 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.10.39


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Galerie Thannhauser, Berlin); purchased 15 October 1930 by (Durand-Ruel, Paris) on joint account with (Paul Rosenberg et Cie., Paris); full ownership acquired 7 February 1950 by (Paul Rosenberg and Co., London, New York and Paris);[1] sold 1952 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.
[1] Letter of 27 March 1987 from Durand Ruel & Cie., in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1953

  • Matisse, Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida, 1953, no. 16, repro.

1954

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1954

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

1986

  • Henri Matisse: The Early Years in Nice 1916-1930, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1986, no. 16, repro.

Bibliography

1965

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965 (rev. ed.): 46, repro., as Lorette.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 87, as Lorette.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 77, repro., as Lorette.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 226, repro., as Lorette.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 259, repro., as Lorette.

Inscriptions

upper left: Henri-Matisse 1917.

Wikidata ID

Q20192139


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