Beschreibung:

The Property of a French Private Collector Henri Matisse Follow Nu allongé I (Aurore) signed, numbered ‘Henri Matisse 3/10’ and stamped with the foundry mark ‘Bingen-Costenoble, fondeur Paris’ on the base patinated bronze 34.3 x 50.2 x 28.6 cm (13 1/2 x 19 3/4 x 11 1/4 in.) Conceived in Collioure in 1907 and cast by Bingen-Costenoble, Paris, circa 1908, this work is number 3 from an edition of 10 plus 1 artist's proof numbered 0/10. Phillips wishes to thank: Les Archives Matisse and Mrs Wanda de Guébriant for their expertise Mrs Elizabeth Royer for her extensive research on the provenance of this work Dr Charles Stuckey for his contribution to the catalogue entry
Provenance Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (on consignment from Henri Matisse from 16 January 1912) Montross Gallery, New York Private Collection, France Acquired from the above by the father of the present owner circa 1950 and thence by descent Exhibited Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Tableaux du Maroc et Sculptures, 14 - 19 April 1913, no. 20 New York, Montross Gallery, Henri Matisse 20 January - 27 February 1915, no. 66 Literature New York Sun , article of 24 January 1915 (present cast illustrated) Pierre Courthion, Henri Matisse Paris, 1934, pl. 58, p. 58 (another cast illustrated) Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Matisse, his Art and his Public, New York, 1951, pp. 94, 100, 140, 179, 193, 205 and 217 (another cast illustrated, p. 337) Clement Greenberg, Matisse , New York, 1953, pl. 32, n. p. (another cast illustrated) Jean Leymarie, Herbert Read and William Lieberman, Henri Matisse , 1966, no. 109, p. 129 (another cast illustrated, p. 128) Albert E. Elsen, 'The Sculpture of Matisse, Part I: A New Expressiveness in Sculpture', Art Forum , September 1968, vol. VII, p. 21 Albert E. Elsen, 'The Sculpture of Matisse Part II: Old Problems and New Possibilities', Art Forum, October 1968, vol. VII, pp. 22 and 24-26 (another cast illustrated, p. 25) Herbert Read, 'Le sculpteur', Hommage a‘ Henri Matisse numéro special du XXe siècle, Paris, 1970, pp. 122 -123 (another cast illustrated) Albert E. Elsen, The Sculpture of Henri Matisse New York, 1972, figs. 89-91, pp. 71-77 and 105 (another cast illustrated, pp. 73-75) Lawrence Gowing Matisse , London, 1979, no. 52, pp. 74-77 (another cast illustrated, p. 71) Pierre Schneider, Massimo Carrà and Xavier Derying, Tout L’Oeuvre Peint de Matisse, 1904-1928, Paris, 1982, no. S3, p. 111 (another cast illustrated) Pierre Schneider, Matisse, New York, 1984, pp. 340, 348-349, 392, 394, 399, 416, 420, 431, 489, 493, 524, 536, 541, 544-545, 557, 562, and 566-567 (another cast illustrated, p. 546) Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, Henri Matisse chez Bernheim Jeune , vol 2, Poitiers, 1995, p. 1411 (present cast illustrated) Claude Duthuit, Henri Matisse Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre sculpté , Paris, 1997, no. 30, no. 129, p. 74 (present cast listed, p. 74 and another cast illustrated, p. 75) Pierre Daix, Picasso et Matisse revisités, Neuchâtel, 2002, p. 62 Matisse: Painter as Sculptor, exh. cat., Dallas Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2007, no. 44 and 45, pp. 152 – 156, 269 (another cast illustrated and exhibited) Catalogue Essay Number 1: Cast circa 1908 In the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris Number 2: Cast circa 1908 Private Collection Number 3: The present work Number 4: Cast circa 1912 In the collection of the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Room of Contemporary Art Fund, Buffalo Number 5: Cast circa 1912 Christie’s, New York, 9 November 1999, lot 504 Number 6: Cast circa 1930 In the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland Number 7: Cast circa 1930 In the collection of the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris Number 8: Cast circa 1930 Phillips, New York, 7 May 2001, lot 17 Number 9: Cast circa 1948 Private Collection Number 10: Cast circa 1951 Christie’s, New York, 19 November 1986, lot 26 In the collection of the Nasher Sculpture Center, Texas Number 0: Cast 1951 In the Artist’s family collection Nu allongé I , finished in 1907, and first cast in bronze shortly afterwards, was singled out as 'one of Matisse's masterpieces' by perhaps the artist's best informed advocate, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, in his seminal, Matisse, His Art and his Public , 1951. As if to suggest that Nu allongé I is the quintessential Matisse sculpture, it was selected for the dust jacket of The Sculpture of Henri Matisse the classic account by Albert E. Elsen, published in 1972. Posed with her muscular limbs twisting across her torso gymnastically to find equili