This charcoal drawing depicts one of Matisse's foremost patrons and an early connoisseur of modern art, the Russian merchant Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin (1854–1936). The two first met in Paris in the fall of 1906, although Shchukin had been familiar with Matisse's work since 1904. Between 1906 and 1914, he acquired some forty important paintings by Matisse for his house in Moscow, including two famous decorative panels executed in 1909–10, Dance and Music. Prior to the Russian Revolution in October 1917, Shchukin's entire collection was open to the public one day a week, and provided one of the only places to see European modern art in Moscow.
In 1918, the collection was nationalized and eventually divided between the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. Shchukin himself emigrated in August 1919 to Germany and then to France, where he settled in Nice. Although Matisse, then living in nearby Collioure, attempted another meeting, Shchukin remained aloof, possibly because of his diminished financial circumstances.
In this preparatory study for an oil painting, which was never realized, Matisse captures the personality of his sitter in several masterly touches. He emphasizes Shchukin's penetrating eyes, bushy eyebrows, high cheekbones, and expressive mouth, and creates a lively tension by positioning the head high and off-center within the pictorial field.
Inscription: Signed (lower right, in pencil): Henri-Matisse
the artist (1912–d. 1954; his estate, Paris, 1955; to P. Matisse); Pierre Matisse, New York (until d. 1989); his widow, Maria-Gaetana Matisse, née von Spreti, New York (1989–d. 2001); Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Foundation (2002; gift to MMA)
Paris. Galeries Georges Petit. "Henri Matisse, Exposition organisée au profit de l'Orphelinat des Arts," June 16–July 25, 1931, not in catalogue [possibly this work].
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Henri-Matisse: Retrospective Exhibition," November 3–December 6, 1931, no. 85.
Providence. Rhode Island School of Design. "Henri Matisse," December 14–28, 1931, no. 43.
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Henri Matisse, "la danse": Sketch for the Moscow Decoration," October 27–November 21, 1936, no. 6.
Los Angeles. UCLA Art Galleries. "Henri Matisse: Retrospective 1966," January 5–February 27, 1966, no. 157.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Henri Matisse: Retrospective 1966," March 11–April 24, 1966, no. 157.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Henri Matisse: Retrospective 1966," May 11–June 26, 1966, no. 157.
Baltimore Museum of Art. "Matisse as a Draughtsman," January 12–February 21, 1971, no. 19.
San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor. "Matisse as a Draughtsman," March 20–May 9, 1971, no. 19.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Matisse as a Draughtsman," May 26–July 10, 1971, no. 19.
Paris. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou. "Henri Matisse: Dessins et sculpture," May 29–September 7, 1975, no. 40.
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. "Henri Matisse: Dessins et sculpture/ Tekeningen en sculpturen," September 27–October 26, 1975, no. 36.
Paris. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou. "Paris-Moscou, 1900–1930," May 31–November 5, 1979, unnumbered cat. (p. 19).
Roslyn Harbor, N. Y. Nassau County Museum of Fine Art. "The Shock of Modernism in America: The Eight and Artists of the Armory Show," April 29–July 29, 1984, unnumbered cat. (fig. 117).
London. Hayward Gallery. "The Sculpture and Drawings of Henri Matisse," October 4, 1984–January 6, 1985, no. 26.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "The Drawings of Henri Matisse," February 28–May 14, 1985, no. 26.
New York. Pierpont Morgan Library. "New York Collects: Drawings and Watercolors, 1900–1950," May 20–August 29, 1999, no. 6.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection," May 18, 2004–June 26, 2005, no catalogue (checklist no. 29) [on view through February 2005].
Paris. Mona Bismarck Foundation. "Pierre Matisse, passeur passionné: Un marchand d'art et ses artistes," October 20, 2005–January 14, 2006, unnumbered cat. (p. 152).
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Matisse in the Studio," April 9–July 9, 2017, unnumbered cat. (fig. 92; as "Portrait of Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin").
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Matisse: The Red Studio," May 1–September 10, 2022, no. 22.
Will Grohmann. "Henri Matisse." Cahiers d'art 6, nos. 5–6 (1931), p. 278, fig. 45 (English ed. of issue, p. 58, fig. 44).
Raymond Escholier. Henri Matisse. Paris, 1937, pp. 5, 181, ill.
Alfred H. Barr Jr. Matisse: His Art and His Public. New York, 1951, pp. 106, 247, ill. p. 24.
Henri Matisse. Portraits. Monte Carlo, 1954, pp. 24, 149, ill.
Raymond Escholier. Matisse, ce vivant. Paris, 1956, p. 150.
Jean Selz. Matisse. New York, [1964], pp. 26, 95, ill.
Jean Guichard-Meili. Matisse. New York, 1967, pp. 188–92, fig. 191.
John Russell. The World of Matisse. New York, 1969, p. 86, ill.
Pierre Volboudt. "La ligne à la recherche de la forme." XXe siècle (1970), p. 100, ill.
Michael Ginsburg. "Art Collectors of Old Russia: The Morosovs and the Shchukins." Apollo 98 (December 1973), pp. 477, 483, fig. 8.
Margrit Hahnloser inHenri Matisse. Ed. Felix Baumann. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. Zürich, 1982, p. 46, fig. 24.
Jean Jouvet and Hans Hildebrandt. Henri Matisse, Der Zeichner: Hundert Zeichnungen und Graphiken, 1898–1952. Zurich, 1982, p. 117, pl. 14.
Nicholas Watkins. Matisse. Oxford, 1984, pp. 87, 235, fig. 66.
Pierre Schneider. Matisse. New York, 1984, p. 306, ill.
Jack Flam. Matisse: The Man and His Art, 1869–1918. Ithaca, 1986, p. 325, ill.
Jack Flam. Matisse: A Retrospective. Rev. ed. (1st ed., 1988). New York, 1990, p. 105, ill.
Albert Kostenevich inMatisse in Morocco: The Paintings and Drawings, 1912–1913. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Washington, 1990, p. 251, fig. 121.
Gilles Néret. Matisse. [Paris], 1991, p. 65, fig. 101.
Rosamond Bernier. Matisse, Picasso, Miró As I Knew Them. New York, 1991, p. 76, ill.
Dominique Fourcade and Isabelle Monod-Fontaine. Henri Matisse 1904–1917. Exh. cat., Centre Georges Pompidou. Paris, 1993, p. 101, ill.
Albert Kostenevich and Natalia Semyonova. Collecting Matisse. Paris, 1993, p. 43, ill. p. 39.
Xavier Girard. Matisse: Une splendeur inouïe. Paris, 1993, p. 74, ill.
"Matisse el conservador." Saber ver lo contemporaneo del arte 1995 no. 23 (July-August 1995), p. 24, ill.
Gilles Néret. Henri Matisse. Cologne, 1996, p. 63, ill. p. 61.
Albert Kostenevich in "Matisse and Fauvism." La Belle Èpoque et avantgarde. Ed. Ilkka Karttunen. Exh. cat., Taidekeskus Rettreti. Punkaharju, Finland, 1997, p. 20, ill.
Rémi Labrusse. Matisse: La révélation m'est venue de l'Orient. Exh. cat., Musei Capitolini. Rome, 1997, p. 168, ill.
Jack Cowart et al. Matisse au Maroc: Peintures et dessins, 1912-1913. Paris, 1999, p. 237, ill.
Albert Kostenevich inLe Maroc de Matisse. Exh. cat., Institut du Monde Arabe. Paris, 1999, p. 210, fig. 79.
John Klein. Matisse Portraits. New Haven, 2001, pp. 138, 164–65, 268 n. 39, fig. 118.
Pierre Schneider. Matisse. Rev. ed. (English ed., 1984). Paris, 2002, p. 306, ill.
René Percheron and Christian Brouder. Matisse: De la couleur à l'architecture. Paris, 2002, p. 24, fig. 15.
Carol Vogel. "Met Gets Gift of 100 Works Collected by Son of Matisse." New York Times (February 27, 2003), p. B9.
Sabine Rewald in "Selections from the Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 61 (Spring 2004), pp. 30–31, ill.
Holland Cotter. "Matisse the Son, Illuminating His Father's Legacy." New York Times (2004), p. E28, ill.
Sabine Rewald. "Matisse's Drawing of Shchukin: A Gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Burlington Magazine 147 (March 2005), p. 187, fig. 49 (color).
Magdalena Dabrowski in Sabine Rewald. The American Matisse: The Dealer, His Artists, His Collection. The Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection. New York, 2009, pp. 91–92, 160, ill. (color).
Suzanne Preston Blier inMatisse in the Studio. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 2017, pp. 103, 106, 199, fig. 92 (color).
Ann Temkin and Dorthe Aagesen. Matisse: The Red Studio. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 2022, pp. 89, 212, no. 22, fig. VI.3 (color).
Henri Matisse (French, Le Cateau-Cambrésis 1869–1954 Nice)
1929
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