Provenance
Sold by the estate of the artist to Lumley-Cazalet Limited, London, Jan. 25, 1978 [according to Wanda de Guébriant of the Archives Matisse]; sold to Allan Frumkin Gallery, New York, June 3, 1979; sold through Alice Adam, Chicago, to Dr. and Mrs. Martin Gecht, Chicago, 1979; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2015.
Accession Number
180676
Medium
Graphite (recto and verso), with touches of erasing, on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
35.2 × 25.2 cm (13 7/8 × 9 15/16 in.)
Classification
drawings (visual works)
Credit Line
Gift of the Gecht Family
Background & Context
Background Story
Henri Matisse's double-sided drawing Young Girl with Long Hair (recto) and Girl Reading (verso) (c. 1919) is a graphite drawing on off-white wove paper. The recto shows a young girl with long, flowing hair. The verso shows a girl reading, captured in a moment of quiet concentration. The double-sided nature of this sheet is particularly valuable, showing Matisse exploring different subjects on the same support. The date c. 1919 places this work in the period after World War I, when Matisse was living in Nice and producing works of a new serenity and sensuousness.
Cultural Impact
Matisse's post-war drawings document his renewed engagement with intimate, domestic subjects, the traumas of war giving way to a vision of everyday beauty.
Why It Matters
This double-sided drawing of a young girl shows Matisse's mastery of graphite, the flowing lines capturing the grace of youth with extraordinary delicacy.
