Woman Seated in an Armchair

1940

Henri Matisse

Artist, French, 1869 - 1954

A woman wearing a pale blue and gray patterned top and turquoise skirt stretches out in an armchair in this stylized, almost square painting. The scene is loosely painted with areas of mostly flat color, especially in the background, so some details are difficult to make out. The woman is centered in the composition, and her legs stretch to our left. She has upswept dark brown hair, peach-colored skin, and her eyes, nose, and mouth are drawn with dark gray lines. Her blousy top is vertically patterned with lead-gray leaves down the front and elongated dots on the sleeves. Each sleeve also has a carrot-orange band on the upper arm. Her skirt is spearmint green, and she wears bone-white pumps. She sits in a canary-yellow armchair with red down the front of the arms and along the bottom, where the wood frame would be. One foot stretches to rest on a matching footstool, while her other leg is curled under her. The denim-blue floor tilts toward us and is covered with thin white lines in a chevron pattern. In the lower right is a red table with a bright yellow vase covered with swipes of brown and green. The vase is filled with elongated, abstract mauve-pink and mint-green shapes on slender white stems. The back wall of the room has an aqua-green cabinet to our left, which holds a silver urn and dishes of round objects. There is also a cantaloupe-orange footstool and other pieces of small furniture there, below paintings on the white wall. Above the woman is a white door with panels outlined in gray, and a section of black wall to our right has more paintings. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “Henri Matisse 40.”
This object’s media is not available for download. Contact us about image usage.
On View

East Building Ground Level, Gallery 103-E

Order reproductions from the Gallery Shop

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased from the artist by (Paul Rosenberg, Paris);[1] (Alexandre Rosenberg, New York)by 1948; sold 1950 to William Somerset Maugham [1874-1965], St. Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France;[2] (his sale, Sotheby's, London, 10 April 1962, no. 24); Colonel C. Michael Paul, New York; sold 15 January 1970 to Taft B. Schreiber, Beverly Hills [1908-1976];[3] his wife, Rita B. Schreiber, Beverly Hills [d. 1989]; gift 1989 to NGA.
[1] This painting was confiscated by the ERR in 1941 with others from the Rosenberg collection in France (ERR inventory card PR34, National Archives RG260/Property Division/Box 19, copy NGA curatorial files). There is confusion in the archival records as to whether the picture was taken from the Rosenberg vault at Libourne or the chateau at Floirac. In the Rosenberg claim file (National Archives RG260/Box 742, copies NGA curatorial files) there are lists and correspondence from Edmond Rosenberg, brother of Paul Rosenberg, which provide conflicting information. However, it seems likely the picture was taken from Floirac, as it was this part of the Rosenberg collection assigned the code "PR." Documents from the National Archives in Washington indicate that the painting was traded by the ERR on 16 November 1943, along with a Bonnard painting from the Kann collection, to the dealer Max Stöcklin in exchange for a painting by Rudolf Alt. (Receipt for the exchange, National Archives RG260/Munich Central Collecting Point/Restitution Research Records/Box 452, copy NGA curatorial files). The picture seems to be confused throughout the archival documentation with another Matisse painting described as of a woman in a yellow chair, which also appears to have been confiscated from the Rosenberg collection. However, this second picture dates from 1939, is in a vertical format, and the woman is nude. On some documents the code PR34 seems to be associated with the 1939 picture, but it is clearly the NGA painting that is described on the ERR card for PR34, and on the receipt for the exchange between Stöcklin and the ERR. Moreoever, the photographs taken by the ERR of confiscated objects illustrate the NGA picture with the code PR34. After Stöcklin, the painting was traced to the Swiss dealer André Martin, and seen on view at the Galerie Neupert in Zurich (See item no. 62 on atachment B to Douglas Cooper's "Report on Mission to Switzerland," 10 December 1945, National Archives RG239/Entry 73/Box 82, copy NGA curatorial files).
The NGA picture was returned to the Rosenbergs by 1948, according to the records of the gallery, which sold it to Somerset Maugham in 1950.
[2]According to Rosenberg gallery records.
[3]Correspondence between Paul and Schreiber in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1991

  • Matisse Retrospective Exhibition, Nagoya City Art Museum; Hiroshima Museum of Art; Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, 1991, 164, no. 61, repro.

1995

  • Matisse, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1995, no. 173, repro.

1997

  • Henri Matisse: 'La révélation m'est venue de l'Orient', Musei Capitolini,, 1997-1998, no. 91, repro.

2007

  • Déja Vu? Revealing Repetition in French Masterpieces, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Phoenix Art Museum, 2007-2008, no. 63, fig. 9.

2011

  • Matisse: Drawing Life, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2011-2012, no. 299, repro.

2014

  • Matisse, la figura. La forza della linea, l'emozione del colore, Exhibit Halls, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, 2014, no. 65, repro.

  • Matisse and Friends: Selected Masterworks from the National Gallery of Art, Denver Art Museum, 2014-2015, no catalogue.

2015

  • Collection Conversations: The Chrysler and the National Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 2015, no catalogue.

Bibliography

1951

  • Barr, Alfred H., Jr. Matisse: His Art and His Public. New York:255, repro.

1956

  • Jeudwine, W.R. "Modern Paintings from the Collection of W. Somerset Maugham - II." Apollo (November 1956):139, repro.

1961

  • Maugham, William Somerset. Purely for My Pleasure. London, 1961:4, repro.

1997

  • Matisse: La révélation m'est venue de l'Orient, Exh. cat., Musei capitolini, Rome, 1997: 214, no. 91, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: Henri Matisse 40

Wikidata ID

Q20193299

You may be interested in

Loading Results