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We look slightly down onto a nearly nude woman with pale pink skin, who sits facing away from us as she lifts her hands to her dark hair in this vertical painting. The scene is painted with broad, visible strokes, and some details are difficult to make out. The woman's torso and head almost fill the vertical height of the painting. The scene is loosely painted so some details are indistinct, but she seems to face a mirror above the small table of a vanity. Visible brushstrokes in tones of pale peach and pink, taupe, and faint sage green capture her spine, shoulder blades, the muscles of her arms, and the dimple above her round buttocks. She uses both hands to pin up her chestnut-brown hair above a rectangular clip painted in muted gold with touches of light pink. She sits sideways in a wooden chair so the ladder-back is to our right. Her thighs are wrapped in a fluffy white piece of cloth, perhaps a towel, which may be wrapped with a ruby-red cloth or it could be a red cushion beneath. The surface of the narrow tabletop in front of her, to our left, is painted with areas of sage green, elephant gray, and royal blue. About a dozen orbs in coral orange and fuchsia pink above and around a band of canary yellow suggest flowers in a yellow vase along the left side of the table. The mirror above the vanity has a wide, gold frame. The woman’s reflection is painted with long strokes of ash brown with a few touches of rose pink. Though abstracted, the reflection seems to capture her torso and one bent elbow. The wall to our left of the vanity is pale pea green and to our right, dark brown. Streaks of honey-brown against a black field in the lower right corner suggests an area rug on an otherwise peanut-brown floor. The artist signed the work in marine blue in the lower left corner, “Henri Matisse.”

Henri Matisse

La coiffure, 1901

East Building, Ground Level - Gallery 103E

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 95.2 x 80.1 cm (37 1/2 x 31 9/16 in.)

framed: 114.3 x 96.8 x 6.3 cm (45 x 38 1/8 x 2 1/2 in.)
gross weight: 12.247 kg (27 lb.)

Credit Line

Chester Dale Collection

Accession Number

1963.10.165

Artists / Makers

Henri Matisse (artist) French, 1869 - 1954

Image Use

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Inscription

lower left: Henri Matisse

Provenance

Purchased from the artist by (Galerie Druet) for Eugène Druet's personal collection; sold 1910 to Judge Jacob M. Moses, Baltimore; by whom sold 16 December 1929 to Stephen Carlton Clark [1882-1960], Cooperstown, NY;[1] (sale, 11 May 1944, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, no. 93); purchased by Chester Dale, New York; gift 1963 to NGA.[2]

[1]According to letter from Moses to Clarke dated 23 December 1929, an except from which is in NGA curatorial files.

[2]Dale acquisition according to Chester Dale papers in NGA curatorial file.

Associated Names

Clark, Stephen Carlton
Dale, Chester
Galerie Druet
Moses, Jacob M., Judge
Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc.

Exhibition History

1908: Zolotoye Runo (La Toison d'Or), Moscow, 1908, no. 124

1925: Modern French Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1925, no. 70

1931: Exposition Henri Matisse, Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, 1931, no. 7

1948: Philadelphia Museum of Art, long term loan, 1948-1952

1952: Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1952, no. 35, repro.

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

2010: From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1931: Zervos, Christian, "Henri-Matisse: Notes on the Formation and Development of His Work," in Zervos, et al. Henri-Matisse. Paris and New York, 1931: 22, fig. 14, as The Dressing Table.

1952: Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1952 (2nd ed., 1960; rev. ed., 1965): 35, repro.

1960: Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1960 (2nd ed.): 37, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 88.

1965: Twentieth Century French Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965 (rev. ed.): 44, repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 76, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 228, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 594, no. 921, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 260, repro.