"MATISSE WAS EVOLVING METHODS HE WOULD USE FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE": CINQUANTE DESSINS, 1920, WITH A LOVELY ORIGINAL ETCHING SIGNED BY MATISSE—THIS COPY PRESENTED BY HIS YOUNGEST SON PIERRE, BEAUTIFULLY BOUND

MATISSE, Henri. Cinquante Dessins. Paris: Les Soins de l'Artiste, 1920. Quarto, period-style full dark red morocco, elaborately gilt decorated spine and boards, raised bands, marbled endpapers, each leaf mounted onto linen hinge, original printed paper wrappers bound in.

First edition, number 236 of only 1000 copies with a lovely original etching by Matisse of a woman’s face, entitled “Mlle. M. M,” signed by him. Presentation copy from Matisse's youngest son, Pierre, and his first wife Alexina "Teeny" Sattler, inscribed on a front flyleaf, "For Dr. Bartlett from Pierre and Teeny Matisse." Beautifully bound.

Matisse himself edited and printed this lovely suite of 50 photo-lithographic reproductions of his drawings of women to accompany a 1920 exhibition of his work. "Daily painting sessions alternated with hours on end devoted to drawing, a corrective Matisse would use from now on whenever he felt his work was in danger of losing its balance between color and feeling on the one hand, and line and form on the other… He returned over and over again to a lace collar, drawing it first in minute detail until he had got it by heart and could translated it at will with two swift lines 'into an ornament, an arabesque, without losing the character of lace, and of that particular lace'… Matisse was evolving methods he would use for the rest of his life. He published fifty of these drawings in a portfolio called Cinquante Dessins to coincide with his exhibition at Bernheim-Jeune in 1920. A surge of renewed energy pulses between the lines of the letters he wrote home as he drew them" (Spurling, Matisse the Master, 225-26). Matisse's youngest son Pierre, who has inscribed and presented this copy, was born in 1900. He exhibited an early interest in the art market, and as a young man took a job at the Galerie Barbazanges-Hodebert in Paris. In 1924, he came to New York, where he began a distinguished career of 65 years as an art dealer. He married Alexina "Teeny" Sattler in 1929; they separated in 1949. Preface by Charles Vildrac. Text in French. Duthuit 68. Ink gift inscription.

A fine signed copy, scarce and desirable.