Edition 9 of 25, plus 2 trial proofs, and 5 artist proofs.

Executed in 1948, Nadia, visage de trois-quarts belongs to an important group of late portraits in which Henri Matisse explored the expressive possibilities of aquatint. This impression is signed and numbered 9 from the edition of 25, with a further five artist’s proofs and two trial proofs, and was printed by Atelier Lacourière et Frélaut in Paris. The work is recorded as no. 795 in Marguerite Duthuit-Matisse and Claude Duthuit’s catalogue raisonné of Matisse’s prints.

Nadia’s face fills the composition, presented in three-quarter view and constructed from a small number of thick, emphatic black lines. Broad marks define the facial contours, eyes, nose and mouth, while the untouched paper provides both illumination and spatial clarity. The lift-ground aquatint process preserves the weight and fluidity of Matisse’s brushwork, giving each line a physical presence that contrasts with the restraint of the image as a whole.

The sitter is identified as Nadia Sednaoui, who was introduced to Matisse by his son-in-law, the critic Georges Duthuit, and posed for the artist during the summer of 1948. Matisse represented her repeatedly in drawings and aquatints, altering her expression and the angle of her face while progressively reducing its appearance to essential marks. These works were concerned less with descriptive likeness than with the ability of line to communicate the structure and presence of the sitter.

Created during the artist’s self-described ‘second life’ following his serious illness and surgery in 1941, the work reflects the economy and assurance of Matisse’s late practice. Its apparent simplicity is founded upon sustained observation and refinement, bringing together the immediacy of brush drawing and the technical discipline of aquatint. Nadia, visage de trois-quarts consequently demonstrates Matisse’s ability to evoke a human presence through the concentrated relationship between black line and white paper.