Drawing Detail
Portrait of a WomanArtist: Henri Matisse
Medium: Drawings, Lead pencil, 25.4x16.4 cm
Date: 1935
Genre: Portrait
Source: Gift of Lydia Delectorskaya, 1968
The line races along, bringing out the energetic moulding of the face, the decisive turn of the head on its strong neck. The eyes are wide open, the brows raised, the mouth expressive, everything is captured by the artist's hand with great simplicity, and everything is filled with emotional resonance. This portrait becomes almost a symbol of youth, of health and dynamic existence, while the shining white of the sheet of paper seems to charge the world by the few pencil lines with light.