Étude pour La Danse

Pencil on paper, 1931-32, unsigned. Dimensions: 23.8 x 31.8 cm; 9 3/8 x 12 1/2 in. (sheet). Provenance: The Estate of the artist; Pierre Matisse; Pierre-Noël Matisse; Jacquelyn Miller Matisse. Accompanied by photocertificate issued by the Archives Matisse.

This drawing is a study for, or closely related to, La Danse II, the large mural commissioned by Albert Barnes for his Foundation in Merion, near Philadelphia. Click here for the external link to the illustration on the collection webpage. Matisse visited the Barnes Foundation in 1930 on a trip to the US and met with Barnes to view the collection, which already had significant Matisse holdings. Barnes proposed the idea of a site-specific mural, allowing Matisse to chose the subject himself. Matisse returned to Nice and began the project, making the preliminary sketches and drawings in a rented studio. The project turned out to be fraught with great difficulties, including Matisse discovering to have had the wrong measurements and having to start again when almost finished; however, at its completion this revealed itself as one of the major (the second greatest, probably) projects of the artist.