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 "exotic" appearance with his 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: L.R. (in pencil): Henri-Matisse

The artist (1915 - his d. 1954); Estate of Henri Matisse, Paris (1955); Pierre Matisse, New York (from his father's estate - his d.1989); his widow, Maria-Gaetana Matisse, née von Spreti, New York (1989 - her d. 2001); Pierre and Maria Gaetana Matisse Foundation (2002; gift to MMA).

Possibly included in: "Henri-Matisse, Exposition organisée au profit de l'Orphelinat des Arts," Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, June 16-July 25, 1931, exh. cat., p. 51, unlisted;

"Henri Matisse Retrospective Exhibition," The Museum of Modern Art, New York, November 3-December 6, 1931, exh. cat. with introduction by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and essay by artist from 1908, no. 85, p. 54, ill. n.p.;

"Henri Matisse," Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art, Providence, December 14-28, 1931, exh. cat., no. 43;

"Henri Matisse: La Danse, Sketch for the Moscow Decoration," Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, October 27-November 21, 1936, exh. cat., no. 6;

"Henri Matisse: Retrospective 1966," UCLA Art Galleries, Los Angeles, January 5-June 26, 1966, Art Institute of Chicago, March 11-April 25, 1966, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, May 5-July 3, 1966, exh. cat. with essays by Jean Leymarie, Herbert Read, and William S. Lieberman, no. 157, pp. 146, 197;

"Henri Matisse" (venue of UCLA 1966), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, May 5-July 3, 1966, exh. cat. with excerpts from a letter by Henri Matisse to Mr. Henri Clifford, and "Notes of a Painter" by Henri Matisse, no. 157;

"Matisse as a Draughtsman," Baltimore Museum of Art, January 12-February 21, 1971, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, March 20-May 9, 1971, Art Institute of Chicago, May 26-July 10, 1971, exh. cat. with introduction and commentary by Victor I. Carlson, no. 19, pp. 58-59, ill.;

"130 dessins de Matisse," Musée Cantini, Marseille, June 14-September 15 (prolonged until 29), 1974, exh. cat. by Marielle Latour, with statements by Matisse, no. 16, ill. n.p.;

"Henri Matisse: Dessins et Sculpture," Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, May 29-September 7, 1975, exh. cat. with introduction by Dominique Bozo, essay by Dominique Fourcade, catalogue by Dominique Fourcade and Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, no. 40, pp. 87-88, ill.;

"Henri Matisse: dessins et sculpture / tekeningen en sculpturen" (venue of Paris 1975), Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, September 27-October 26, 1975, exh. cat. with introduction by Dominique Bozo (in French and Flemish), no. 36, ill.;

"Paris-Moscou, 1900-1930," Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, May 31-November 5, 1979, exh. cat. by Pontus Hulten et al., ill. p. 19;

"The Shock of Modernism in America: the Eight and Artists of the Armory Show," Nassau County Museum of Fine Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York, April 29-July 29, 1984, exh. cat. by Constance H. Schwartz, fig. 117, p. 75;

"The Drawings of Henri Matisse," Hayward Gallery, London, October 4, 1984-January 6, 1985, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, February 27-May 14, 1985, exh. cat. edited by John Elderfield, introduction by John Golding, catalogue by Magdalena Dabrowski, no. 26, pp. 154 (ill.), 258;

"New York Collects: Drawings and Watercolors, 1900-1950," Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, May 20-August 29, 1999, exh. cat. with foreword by Charles E. Pierce, Jr., introduction by William M. Griswold, essays by Jack Flam and Carol Selle, no. 6, pp. 42-43 (text by Jack Flam), ill.;

"The Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection," Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, exh. in three parts, May 18, 2004-June 26, 2005, no cat. (see MMA Bulletin 2004);

"Pierre Matisse passeur passionné: Un marchand d'art et ses artistes," The Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, Oct. 20, 2005-January 14, 2006, exh. cat. edited by Pierre Schneider, essays by Pierre Schneider, Paul Matisse, Sabine Rewald, Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, and Jacques Dupin, ill. p. 152;

"Matisse: Menschen Masken Modelle," Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, September 27, 2008-January 11, 2009, and Bucerius Kunstforum, Hamburg, January 31- April 19, 2009, exh. cat. by Ortrud Westheider with Michael Philipp and Dorothee Böhm, & Ina Conzen with Frank-Thomas Ziegler, with contributions by Ina Conzen, John Klein, Peter Kropmanns, Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, Kasper Monrad, Susanne Scharf, Hilary Spurling, Ortrud Westheider, and Frank-Thomas Ziegler, no. 28, pp. 20, 62, 86, 125 (ill.), 206 (ill.), 214, 216; also English edition of the same, published as "Matisse: People, Masks, Models" (Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2008), ibid.

"L'Oeuvre de Henri Matisse étudiée par Christian Zervos, Paul Fierens, Pierre Guéguen, Dr. Curt Glaser, Will Grohmann, Georges Salles, Roger Fry, Henry McBride, Karel Asplund, Giovanni Scheiwiller," Cahiers d'Art, vol. 6, no. 5-6 (1931), ill. p. 278, fig. 45;

Christian Zervos, Paul Fierens, Pierre Guéguen, Georges Salles, Roger Fry, Henry McBride, Will Grohmann, Karel Asplund, Giovanni Scheiwiller, Apollinaire, Henri Matisse (Paris 1931), fig. 44, ill. p. 58 (reprint of Cahiers d'art 1931, in English);

Raymond Escholier, Henri Matisse (Paris 1937), pp. 5 (ill.), 181;

Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Matisse: His Art and His Public (New York 1951), pp. 24 (iIl.), 106, 247;

Henri Matisse, and André Sauret, ed. Portraits par Henri Matisse (Monte-Carlo 1954), pp. 24 (ill.), 149; and 1955 edition in English, Portraits by Henri Matisse, ibid.;

Raymond Escholier, Matisse, ce vivant (Paris 1956), p. 179; and two English translations:
Raymond Escholier, Matisse, From the Life, transl. by Geraldine and H. M. Colvile, with intro and notes on the illustrations by R. H. Wilenski (London 1960), p. 150;
Raymond Escholier, Matisse: A Portrait of the Artist and the Man (New York 1960), p. 150;

Jean Selz, Matisse, transl. from French by A.P.H. Hamilton (New York 1964), pp. 26 (ill.), 95;

Jean Guichard-Meili, Henri Matisse, son oeuvre, son univers (Paris 1967), pp. 188-192, ill. p. 190, fig. 191; and English transl. by Caroline Moorehead (New York 1967), ibid.;

John Russell, The World of Matisse, 1869-1954 (New York 1969), ill. p. 86;

Pierre Volboudt, "La ligne à la recherche de la forme, " in: Hommage à Henri Matisse, Numéro spécial de XXe Siècle (Paris 1970), ill. p. 100; and English transl., XXe siècle: Homage to Henri Matisse (New York 1970), ill. p. 100;

Michael Ginsburg, "Art Collectors of Old Russia, The Morosovs and the Shchukins," Apollo (London), vol. 98, no. 142, n.s. (December 1973), pp. 477 (fig. 8), 483;

Margit Hahnloser-Ingold, "Matisse und seine Sammler," in: Felix Baumann, with Margrit Hahnloser-Ingold, and Klaus Schrenk, Henri Matisse, exh. cat. (Kunsthaus Zurich and Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1982-83), exh. cat., ill. fig. 24, p. 46;

Jean Jouvet, ed., with text by Hans Hildebrandt, Henri Matisse, Der Zeichner: Hundert Zeichnungen und Graphiken, 1898-1952 (Zurich 1982), ill. pl. 14 n.p., p. 117;

Pierre Schneider, Matisse, transl. by Michael Taylor and Bridget Strevens Romer (Paris & New York 1984 and 1992), ill. p. 306; and revised edition (Paris & London 2002), ibid.;

Nicholas Watkins, Matisse (Oxford 1984), pp. 87 (ill. fig. 66), 235;

Jack Flam, Matisse: The Man and His Art, 1869-1918 (Ithaca and London 1986), ill. p. 325;

Jack Flam, Matisse: A Retrospective (New York 1988 and 1990), ill. p. 105;

Albert Kostenevich, "The Russian Collectors and Henri Matisse," in: Matisse in Morocco, Paintings and Drawings 1912-1913, exh. cat. (National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1990), p. 251, ill. fig. 121;

Rosamond Bernier, with foreword by John Russell, Matisse, Picasso, Miró, As I knew them (New York 1991), ill. p. 76;

Gilles Néret, Matisse (Paris 1991), ill. p. 65, fig. 101;

Gilles Néret, Henri Matisse (Cologne 1996), pp. 61 (ill.), 63;

Xavier Girard, Matisse: Une splendeur inouïe (Paris 1993), ill. p. 74;

Albert Kostenevich and Natalia Semyonova, Collecting Matisse (Paris 1993), pp. 39 (ill.), 43;

Dominique Fourcade, Isabelle Monod- Fontaine, ed., Henri Matisse 1904-1917, exh. cat. (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1993), ill. p. 101;

Author unknown, "Matisse el Conservador," Saber Ver Lo contemporaneo del arte (Mexico), no. 23 (July-August 1995), ill. p. 24;

Claude Duthuit, Albert Kostenevich, Rémi Labrusse, and Jean Leymarie, Matisse: La revelation m'est venue de l'Orient, exh. cat., Musei Capitolini and Artificio, Rome, 1997-98, ill. p. 168;

Albert Kostenevich, "Matisse and the Fauves," in: Ilkka Karttunen, ed., La Belle Époque et l'Avant-garde, exh. cat., Retretti Art Centre, Punkaharju, Finland, May 23-August 31, 1997, ill. p. 20;

Albert Kostenevitch, "Les collectionneurs russes et Henri Matisse," in : Jack Cowart, et al., Matisse au Maroc: peintures et dessins, 1912-1913, transl. by Anne Michel of Washington 1990 exh. cat. (Paris 1999), ill. p. 237;

Albert Kostenevitch, "Chtchoukine, Morosov et Matisse," in: Le Maroc de Matisse, exh. cat. (Paris, Institut du monde arabe, 1999-2000), p. 210, ill. fig. 79;

John Klein, Matisse Portraits (New Haven and London 2001), ill. fig. 118, pp. 138, 164-165 (ill.), 268 (note 39);

René Percheron and Christian Brouder, Matisse: de la couleur à l'architecture (Paris 2002), fig. 15, p. 24;

Magdalena Dabrowski, William S. Lieberman, and Sabine Rewald, "Selections from the Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection," Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 61, no. 4 (Spring 2004), pp. 30-31, ill.;

Holland Cotter, "Matisse the Son, Illuminating His father's Legacy" (review of MMA 2004), New York Times (May 14, 2004) p. E28, ill.

Magdalena Dabrowski in The American Matisse: The Dealer, His Artists, His Collection. The Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection (New York, 2009), pp. 91-92, 94, 108, 160, ill.