Seated Young Woman with an Amber Necklace
Framed: 29 3/4 x 26 x 2 3/4 inches (75.57 x 66.04 x 6.99 cm)
- 129
Exhibition History
Matisse: Huiles, Gouaches, Découpées, Dessins, Sculptures, Galerie Beyeler, Basel, June–September 1980, no. 34, as Femme assise sur fond noir.
Matisse: Oleos, Dibujos, Gouaches Découpées, Esculturas y Libros, La Fundación Juan March, Madrid, October–December 1980, no. 35, as Mujer sentada con fondo negro.
Matisse, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, March 30–May 17, 1981; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, May 26–July 19, 1981, no. 90, as Seated Woman against a Black Background (Femme assise sur fond noir).
Henri Matisse, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, November 3, 1984–January 6, 1985, no. 66, as Femme assise sur fond noir (Sittande kvinna mot svart bakgrund).
Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 9–September 9, 2007, no. 30, as Woman Seated before a Black Background (Femme assise sur fond noir).
Henri Matisse’s painting is alive with brilliant color and rhythmic line. By placing the chair off-center and shifting the woman’s pose further to the right, he establishes a lively informality. The woman’s tilted head, smile, kind eyes, and relaxed arms enhance the sense of ease. The visual weight of the black background is lightened by the lively pattern of arabesques scratched into the wet paint with the pointed tip of the artist’s brush handle.
Matisse painted this affirmation of life amid the tumult of World War II (1939–1945) and during his recuperation from surgery for stomach cancer.
Purchased from the artist by Max Pellequer (before 1903–after 1973), Paris, by June 12, 1943–after 1973, as Monette au collier d’ambre [1];
Inherited by his nephew, Georges Pellequer (d. 2013), Paris, after 1973–August 30, 1977 [2];
Purchased from Pellequer by Galerie Beyeler, Basel, 1977–November 11, 1980 [3];
Purchased from Beyeler by Giuseppe Nahmad, Geneva, 1980–at least March 1981 [4];
With M. Knoedler Zürich AG, Zürich, stock no. 890K, as Femme assise sur fond noir [5];
Fredrik Roos (1951–1991), Stockholm, Paris, London, by November 1984–at least January 6, 1985 [6];
Purchased at Impressionist and Modern Paintings and Sculpture (Part I), Christie’s, New York, November 19, 1986, lot 53, by Marion (née Helzberg, 1931–2013) and Henry (1922–2019) Bloch, Shawnee Mission, KS, 1986–June 15, 2015;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2015.
Notes
[1] According to a note in Matisse’s journal, dated June 12, 1943, “Remis à Max Pellequer son tableau (Monette au collier d’ambre)” (Given to Max Pellequer his painting [Monette with an amber necklace]). See Archives Henri Matisse, Issy les Moulineaux, France. The word “son” (his) indicates that it was purchased by Pellequer ahead of time. In a related letter from Pellequer to Matisse, dated June 24, 1943, also in the Archives Henri Matisse, Pellequer mentioned this painting: “Vous m’avez permis d’acquerir un splendide tableau et vous l’avez fait avec une belle delicatesse, un tel chic qui vous avez voulu me donner l’impression que je vous l’avais achete alors que je garde la sensation agreable que vous m’avez fait un veritable cadeau” (You enabled me to acquire a splendid painting, and you did it with such delicacy and chic, you wanted to give me the impression that I had bought it from you, whereas I still have the pleasant feeling that you gave me a real gift). With thanks to Anne Théry, Archives Henri Matisse, for assistance with this research, and to Kenneth B. Brummel, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Aotearoa New Zealand, for his translations of the letters.
[2] Georges inherited his uncle’s collection; see Anna Jozefacka, “Pellequer, Max,” The Modern Art Index Project (January 2015; revised by Lauren Rosati October 2018, December 2019), Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://doi.org/10.57011/ZXYW6521.
[3] See correspondence from Dr. Simon Crameri, Fondation Beyeler, to MacKenzie Mallon, the Nelson-Atkins, April 29, 2015, NAMA curatorial files.
[4] See Matisse, exh. cat. (Tokyo: National Museum of Modern Art, 1981), 115, 213. Giuseppe “Joe” Nahmad (1932–2012) was a dealer specializing in Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modern art.
[5] According to a label on the back of the painting. No date is indicated.
[6] According to a label on the back of the painting. Fredrik Roos was a collector with apartments in Stockholm, Paris, and London. In 1986, he purchased a building in Malmö and two years later founded a museum, Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, which closed in 2006.
Matisse: Huiles, Gouaches, Découpées, Dessins, Sculptures, exh. cat. (Basel: Galerie Beyeler, 1980), unpaginated, (repro.).
Matisse: Oleos, Dibujos, Gouaches Découpées, Esculturas y Libros, exh. cat. (Madrid: Fundación Juan March, 1980), unpaginated, (repro.), as Mujer sentada con fondo negro.
Matisse, exh. cat. (Tokyo: National Museum of Modern Art, 1981), 115, 213, (repro.).
Henri Matisse, exh. cat. (Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1984), 39, (repro.).
Impressionist and Modern Paintings and Sculpture, Part I (New York: Christie’s, 1986), 116–17, (repro.).
Lydia Delectorskaya, Henri Matisse: Contre vents et marées; Peinture et livres illustrés de 1939 à 1943 (Paris: Éditions Irus et Vincent Hansma, 1996), 414, 429, 551, (repro.), as Robe persane, gros collier d’ambre.
Hilary Spurling, Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Conquest of Colour, 1909–1954 (New York: Albert A. Knopf, 2005), 387.
“Inaugural Exhibitions Celebrate Kansas City,” Member Magazine (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Fall 2006): 2–3, (repro.).
Bobbie Leigh, “Magnificent Obsession,” Art and Antiques 29, no. 6 (June 2006): 62, (repro.), as Woman Seated Before a Black Background.
Richard R. Brettell and Joachim Pissarro, Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 12, 150–53, 162, (repro), as Woman Seated before a Black Background (Femme assise sur fond noir).
Steve Paul, “Pretty Pictures: Marion and Henry Bloch’s collection of superb Impressionist masters,” Panache 4, no. 3 (Fall 2007): 20, 22, 24, (repro.), as Woman Seated Before a Black Background.
Impressionist and Modern Art (New York: Christie’s, November 1, 2011), 37, (repro.).
Cécile Debray, ed., Matisse: Paires et séries, exh. cat. (Paris: Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 2012), 221, (repro.).
Claudine Grammont, ed., Tout Matisse (Paris: Éditions Robert Laffont, 2018), 881, as Robe persane, collier d’ambre.
Saul Nelson, Never Ending: Modernist Painting Past and Future (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2024), 180, (repro.), as Woman Seated Before a Black Background.
Kenneth Brummel, “Henri Matisse, Seated Young Woman
with an Amber Necklace, December 1942,” catalogue entry, and Diana M.
Jaskierny and John Twilley, “Henri Matisse, Seated Young Woman with an
Amber Necklace, December 1942,” technical entry in French Paintings
and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.802.
