Young Girl Seated (La Biche)

Henri Matisse was one of the most versatile and important artists of the early twentieth century. He worked as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, draughtsman, and designer, and is known as one of the instigators of the Fauvist movement. From late 1917 on, he worked in and around Nice, creating works celebrated for their bright colors and decorative patterning.

Matisse's interest in the expressive qualities of both line and color appears forcefully in this painting of Lydia Delectorskaya -a Russian refugee, the nurse of Matisse's wife, and the artist's muse and model from 1935 to 1939. The reddish brown ground at lower left and center, and the yellow, green, and blue colors along with the white ground under the sitter's face, hair, and neck show the work to be incomplete. However, Matisse signed and dated it in 1936, indicating that, at least by some measure, he considered it finished.

The work was painted in Matisse's home and studio in Nice on place Charles- Félix, and, in a book of reminiscences by the model, was titled Bodice on a "Tahiti" Background. Matisse had traveled in Oceania in 1930-31 and brought back memories of its colors, plants, and flowers. In a number of works made in 1935 and 1936, the artist alludes to the colors he associated with that trip-bright reds, fuchsias, greens, yellows, and blues. A photograph of the work-in-process indicates that Matisse made numerous changes before considering the work complete; the model's head was once further to the right, her face was changed from a long oval to a more rounded form, and her hand was once positioned closer to her shoulder (the pentimento of this is visible in the work). Her piercing expression was added after the photograph was taken.