Fondation Giacometti

In 1954, the administration of the Monnaies et Médailles asked Alberto Giacometti to create a portrait of Henri Matisse, on the suggestion of the latter who, after having accepted in 1950 to create his own commemorative medal, finally designated Giacometti on the 20 May 1954 to design it. This choice was perhaps suggested by his son-in-law Georges Duthuit, a friend of Giacometti. Without waiting for the official commission from the administration of the Monnaies, which only arrived in December, Giacometti went earlier to spend a few days in Nice with Matisse at the end of June. There, and then during a second stay in September, he made a series of portraits of the artist. Portrayed in his armchair, from the front, Henri Matisse is depicted with his head slightly bowed, his arms laid on the armrests. The space around him and the wall in which the frame of a door opens up on a perspective behind Matisse are suggested by a few strokes. The pencil lingers on the figure of the painter, insisting on the outlines of the arms and legs, and on the face on which can be read the determination of the old man. Among the very numerous portraits kept, made on the spot in a few days, this drawing is the only one that tries to reproduce the entire silhouette of Matisse, full-length, in his wheelchair in which his state forced him to stay – ill and old, he was to die on the 3 November. Despite a follow-up from the administration des Monnaies and a project made in plaster, then cast in bronze, the project of the administration des Monnaies was never published. The drawing must have been offered by Giacometti to the artist’s son, Pierre Matisse, gallery owner in New York, who presented Giacometti’s work to the American clientele. It was never published.

No inscription

Pierre MATISSE
Sale Christie's New York New York, NY, November 7th, 2008, lot n ° 542

Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper, New York, NY : Christie's New York, 2008, lot no. 542, p. 64-65, ill. p. 65