Petit Nu. Petit Bois Clair. Small Nude. by Henri Matisse, 1869-1954

Henri Matisse, 1869-1954
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Petit Nu. Petit Bois Clair. Small Nude.

Original woodcut in black ink. 1906. Signed in pencil. Also with the artist's initials in the block. Numbered in pencil from the edition of 50. Hand-printed from the block by
Madame Matisse working with Matisse, 1906. First exhibited Galerie Druet and the Salon des Indépendants, Paris 1906. Rare.
Ref: Duthuit - Matisse L'Oeuvre Gravé no 318.

Extremely fine very strong impression with excellent inking contrasts. On pale cream laid Van Gelder Zonen paper. Excellent condition. Full margins, including deckle edge. Sheet:
18 1/8 x 11 1/4ins. Image: 13 1/2 x 10 1/6ins (342x266mm).

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An exceptionally fine and strongly printed impression, with good variations in tone, of one of the most important prints of the early period of Matisse?s graphic work.

In 1906 Matisse was at the height of his Fauve style. His handling of form and colour had an expressionist intensity which provoked the most powerful visual emotions. In 1905 he had exhibited Luxe, Calme et Volupté at the Salon des Indépendants and at the Salon d?Automne the central group of paintings by the Fauves had caused a sensation. Matisse?s interest in experimenting with images in print media was already aroused at this date. He had tried a number of small drypoint studies two years or so earlier, but wanting a more emotive visual medium, and like his German expressionist counterparts fascinated by primitive art, he decided to try woodcut. He drew on the surface of the blocks with bold strokes of the brush and then translated this into powerful simplified cuts so that the expressive counterpoint in the pose of the figure is given movement and a special vibrancy of light by the zigzag angles in the pattern of shapes in the bedcover on which she is lying. The contrasts of the black and white are a total parallel to the colours of his Fauve paintings, and the very few prints that he made at this date are works of paramount significance in the history of 20th century European graphic art.

Matisse drew just four works in the woodcut medium, all in 1906. He found the medium very difficult to use and enlisted the help of his wife in printing the blocks. Despite his pleasure with the visual results of these woodcut images he did not make any further woodcut prints after 1906.