Femme accoudee sur une table (Woman leaning with elbows on a table)

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

Matisse created this drawing in black chalk, smoothing it into the paper with a stump, an implement usually formed of a small pad of soft leather or paper, to produce soft shadow. Although created as a study for an oil painting, this drawing is satisfying as a finished work in itself. The bold decorative patterning and subject matter are similar to the lithographs he produced around the same time.

Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Femme accoudee sur une table (Woman leaning with elbows on a table), 1923 © Succession H. Matisse/DACS, London, 2003. Image © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London