Description:

Henri Matisse
Nice, France, November 22, 1949
Matisse to His Gallerist Re: Permission to Reproduce Two Paintings…and Art Dealer Who Sold to Nazis
TLS

A fine association and content typed letter signed "M. Matisse," with three holograph corrections in the text. Nice, November 22, 1949, to his gallerist Ambroise Duchemin. 1p. 7.5" x 10". PSA/DNA authenticated and set into a 13" x 10" slab. Please view images for condition.

Matisse writes, in part:

"…I received your letter of the 21st and hurry to let you know that I have absolutely no opinion on the subject of the Fabiani case from the Court, nor any news from elsewhere.

I'd like to point out to you that I have not yet received the package of postcards which Nomis was supposed to have sent to me, and I would be happy if you would intervene on the subject.

I would also like to know what happened to Draeger's [Drägerwerk Lübeck] request for the permission to reproduce two of my paintings about medical advertising. Did the project come to fruition? Which products were involved?..."

Martin Fabiani was a French art dealer who was notoriously convicted in 1949 of wartime trading in looted art with the Nazis, having sold numerous paintings to Nazi officers, German museums and art dealers.

The other name mentioned in our letter refers to Drägerwerk Lübeck, an international company specializing in safety, medical and defense technology. The project to which Matisse refers is now immediately known, and worthy of further research.

For himself, Matisse's completed "The Dancer" in 1949, one in a series of collages on which heworked for the last decade of his life. After successfully surviving cancer and a debilitating surgery in 1941, Matisse was wheelchair-bound and unable to stand at an easel. He turned to creating "gouaches découpés" - collages made from pre-painted card stock which were assembled and glued down to another sheet. Matisse dubbed the technique "painting with scissors," and these colorful, beguilingly simplistic works took on a life of their own. Of "painting with scissors" Matisse would say: ". . . there is no gap between my earlier pictures and my cut-outs…I have only reached a form reduced to the essential through greater absoluteness and greater abstraction."

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Provenance: PSA/DNA #84332103
  • Dimensions: 9.5" x 13"
  • Medium: TLS

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