NARRATOR:
Henri Matisse’s subject here is an odalisque, a concubine in a Near-Eastern harem. It was his favorite subject during the 1920s. A few years earlier, he had traveled to Morocco—and found these exotic women intoxicating:
MATISSE (ACTOR):
“The odalisques were the abundant fruits all at once of a light-hearted nostalgia, of a beautiful living dream, and of something I experienced almost ecstatically day and night, under the enchantment of that climate.”
NARRATOR:
Here, the sinuous curves of the odalisque’s body recall the arabesque line of Arabic script. And the sumptuous array around her evokes the blazing colors and patterns of exotic rugs and hangings, flooded by the Moroccan sun. Matisse later told a friend how he expressed his delight in such women in every part of his paintings:
MATISSE (ACTOR):
“The emotional interest the odalisques inspire in me is not shown specifically in their bodies, but in special lines of values which are scattered over the whole canvas and form its orchestration, its architecture.”
NARRATOR:
This picture is subtitled Harmony in Blue. Matisse wrote:
MATISSE (ACTOR):
“When I have found the relationship of all the tones the result must be a living harmony of tones, not unlike that of a musical composition.”
Odalisque with Tambourine (Harmony in Blue)
1926
Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)
On View
In the 1920s, Matisse settled in Nice, the epicenter of the silent-film industry in France. Perhaps inspired by such local productions as La sultane de l’amour (1919), the painter began staging orientalist scenes in his seafront studio using an ever-changing assortment of decorative wall hangings, rugs, and costumes. Over the next eight years, Matisse devoted himself to the theme of the odalisque, basing the majority of these compositions on a model and former dancer named Henriette Darricarrère, who was working as a film extra when she first met the artist. Odalisque with Tambourine (Harmony in Blue) evidences Matisse’s creative collaboration with Darricarrère, as the model’s upraised arms and the round red form of the tambourine reiterate the decorative x’s and o’s of the North African textile behind her.
Details
- Artist Name: Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)
- Title: Odalisque with Tambourine (Harmony in Blue)
- Date: 1926
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 36-1/4 x 25-5/8 in. (92.1 x 65.1 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1966.07.P
- Copyright: © 2017 Succession H. Matisse/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Reproduction, including downloading of ARS works is prohibited by copyright laws and international conventions without the express written permission of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Object Information
Artist’s collection, still in 1931;
Pierre Loeb, Paris.
Joseph Hessel, Paris.
Paul and Marguerite Rosenberg, Paris and New York by 1937, private inventory no. 3605-P;
Confiscated by ERR, no. PR24 (1941), traded to;
Gustav Rochlitz, Paris, to;
Max Stöcklin, Paris, transferred to;
Georges Schmid, Zurich, sold to;
Galerie [Toni] Aktuaryus, Zurich, for CHF 12,000, sold 18 December 1942 for CHF 14,000 to;
Emil Bührle, Zurich, restituted 3 June 1948 to;
Paul Rosenberg, New York, sold 2 September 1966 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Pierre Loeb, Paris.
Joseph Hessel, Paris.
Paul and Marguerite Rosenberg, Paris and New York by 1937, private inventory no. 3605-P;
Confiscated by ERR, no. PR24 (1941), traded to;
Gustav Rochlitz, Paris, to;
Max Stöcklin, Paris, transferred to;
Georges Schmid, Zurich, sold to;
Galerie [Toni] Aktuaryus, Zurich, for CHF 12,000, sold 18 December 1942 for CHF 14,000 to;
Emil Bührle, Zurich, restituted 3 June 1948 to;
Paul Rosenberg, New York, sold 2 September 1966 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Matisse/Odalisque
- Norton Simon Museum, 2019-02-22 to 2019-06-17
- Art Fundamentals: Theory and Practice,fig. 10.23
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum,1989, p. 177
- Steadman, David W., The Connoisseur,fig. 8
- Cowart, J. and D. Fourcade, Henri Matisse, the Early Years in Nice, 1916-1930,fig. 40 p. 262
- Steadman, David, Art Journal, p. 39
- Krumpak, Tom, Designer's West Magazine, p. 218?
- Dauberville, Guy-Patrice; and Michel Dauberville, Matisse: Henri Matisse chez Bernheim-Jeune,no. 672
- Fry, Roger, Henri-Matisse,pl. 47
- Polack, Emmanuelle, Revue L'Histoire,2013, p. 18
- Georges-Michel, Michel, Chefs d'Oeuvre de peintres contemporains,
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best,2010, cat. 326 p. 285
- Selleck, J., Faces, p. 64
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