Provenance
Possibly Marie Harriman, New York, by Oct. 4, 1930 [New York 1930]. George Howard Warrington (Oct. 21, 1872–Nov. 30, 1940) and Eliza Holmes Warrington (née Eliza Kerrison Holmes, July 12, 1886–Oct. 2, 1938), Cincinnati, by July 21, 1932–at least Nov. 3, 1939 [label on verso]. Heinz Berggruen (Jan. 6, 1914–Feb. 23, 2007) of Berggruen Gallery, Paris, after 1950 [label on verso]. E. V. Thaw and Company and Stephen Hahn (Feb. 1, 1921–Apr. 2, 2011), New York, until 1973. Ferdinand (Sep. 11, 1917–Sep. 28, 1989) and Imelda Marcos (née July 2, 1929), New York, by 1991 [email from Claudia Schmuckli, MoMA, Jan. 25, 2001; Washington Post, May 13, 1993; photocopies in curatorial file]; purchased from Christie’s New York, lot 48, by Richard L. Feigen, New York, on behalf of the Art Institute of Chicago, May 12, 1993.
Accession Number
122232
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
57.6 × 39.8 cm (22 11/16 × 15 11/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Estate of Marguerita S. Ritman; Marian and Samuel Klasstorner Endowment; through prior gifts of Philip D. Armour; through prior bequests of Dorothy C. Morris and Marguerita S. Ritman
Background & Context
Background Story
"Laurette with a Cup of Coffee" is a 1916–17 oil on canvas by Henri Matisse that captures the French master in his most intimately domestic and quietly observational mode, the image showing a model from his Moroccan period rendered with the same attention to color, form, and human presence that characterized his most powerful portraits. The composition is a medium-sized canvas—57.6 × 39.8 centimeters—showing Laurette with a cup of coffee, the oil on canvas creating a surface of extraordinary warmth and human intimacy. The 1916–17 date places this work in the period of Matisse's return to Paris from Morocco and his continued engagement with the models and themes of his North African sojourn. Art historians have connected this painting to the broader tradition of the domestic portrait in French art, from the paintings of Cézanne to the works of the period, noting that Matisse's treatment is more focused on the coloristic warmth and the compositional simplicity, the transformation of domestic moment into visual poetry, than the psychological penetration or the anatomical precision of these other traditions.
Cultural Impact
This 1916-17 oil canvas made Laurette domestically intimate through medium 57cm warm color quiet observation and Moroccan-return domestic presence, using Paris post-Morocco period to transform coffee-cup moment into visual color poetry beyond Cézanne psychological anatomical precision.
Why It Matters
It matters because Matisse painted a woman with coffee and made the canvas feel like it was sharing a quiet morning across a century—proving that even a cup could be a conversation if the color was warm enough.
