Monday, April 29, 2024

Walk Though a Woods at Sunset Study 1

Walk Through a Woods
at Sunset Study 1

heading home on April 24, 2024, painted on April 25, 2024 7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150

The Art of Woods - Blues and/or Purples

The Art of Woods
in Blues and/or Purples


It's wonderful to find most of the major art museums in the world with their art collections online with quality images. However it glaringly exposes those museums' cultural past practice of gender discrimination. Thus this selection below is only men. Fortunately art museums have recognized this past gender bias and are correcting it.

1
Landscape
Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910) French
Watercolor on paper, circa 1908 - 1909
Private Collection

Source: Wiki edited
Henri-Edmond Cross, born Henri-Edmond-Joseph Delacroix in 1856, was a French painter and printmaker. He was a significant influence on Henri Matisse as well as other artists. Cross is known as a master of Neo-Impressionism, playing an important role in shaping the second phase of that movement and his work was instrumental in the development of Fauvism.

2
Woods near Oele (Eastern Netherlands)
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) Dutch
Oil on canvas, 62" x 50" (w x h), 1908
Gemeentemuseum den Haag, Hague, Netherlands

Source: Wiki and Visual Arts Magazine edited
Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (1872-1944), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian, was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the great artists of the 20th century. He is known for being one of the pioneers of 20th-century abstract art. He changed his artistic direction from figurative painting to an increasingly abstract style, until he reached a point where his artistic vocabulary was reduced to simple geometric elements.

About this work Piet Mondrian said, "This painting, painted in 1908, is very important to me because it was before the painting Square Canvases that made me famous. Before Square, I was a landscape artist, and let me tell you - I loved to fool myself with the avant-garde. The forest landscape is actually a painting in the Fauvist school, like the one we see at the Festival of Random Colors, part of a forest on the Dutch outskirts of Amsterdam. But in this work, you can also see how I distanced myself from the traditional perspective and gradually approached my characteristic abstraction by using straight lines and primary colors."

3
Sunset in the Redwoods
Werner Drewes (1899-1985) Born Germany, now Poland
Color woodcut on paper
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Gift of the artist

Source: Wiki edited
Werner Drewes (1899-1985) was a painter, printmaker, and art teacher. Considered to be one of the founding fathers of American abstraction, he was one of the first artists to introduce concepts of the Bauhaus school within the United States. Drewes was as highly regarded for his printmaking as much as for his painting. He was a university professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

4
Cosmos
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) American
Oil on canvas, 30" x 30" (w x h), circa 1908 and 1909
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio

Source: Wiki edited
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), the youngest of nine children was born in Lewiston, Maine, was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist. Hartley developed his painting abilities by observing Cubist artists in Paris and Berlin. Two of Hartley's Cezanne-inspired still life paintings and six charcoal drawings were selected to be included in the landmark 1913 Armory Show in New York. He traveled widely to paint. In 1930 he spent the summer and fall painting mountains in New Hampshire. He finally returned to Maine in 1937, after declaring that he wanted to become "the painter of Maine" and depict American life at a local level. For the remainder of his life he worked in Maine locations including Georgetown, Vinalhaven, Brooksville, Corea, and Mt. Katahdin until his death from congestive heart failure in Ellsworth in 1943. His ashes were scattered on the Androscoggin River.

5
Violet Woods
Wolf Kahn (1927-2020) American/German
Oil on canvas, 36" x 28" (w x h), 1992
Freeman's Auction 2023 sold $53,550

Source: Freeman's edited
When Wolf Kahn moved to Vermont in 1968, he found inspiration in the rural landscapes of New England. Kahn would often use vivid hues and natural light to infuse warmth and vibrancy into his works. In Violet Woods, purples, blues, pinks and bright yellow dance across the sky, while energetic trees spring forth from an electric green ground. Through his use of broad and quick brushstrokes, the artist conveyed a sense of movement and energy.

6
Redding Woods, Connecticut
Portfolio Color Nature Landscapes II
Paul Caponigro (1932- ), American
Cibachrome color print photograph, 13" x 20" (w x h), 1969
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

Source: Wiki
Paul Caponigro, from Boston, Massachusetts was awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in recognition of a sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography in 2001. His photographic work is included in the collections of the Guggenheim, Whitney, Norton Simon Museum, New Mexico Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

7
Study in Blue and Purple
George Herbert Baker (1878-1943) American
Pastel on paper, 12" x 9" (w x h)
Eldred's 2020 East Dennis, MA auction sold $190 USD
From a New Hampshire Collection of Paintings.
Private collection

Source: Invaluable edited
George Herbert Baker (1878-1943), born in Muncie Indiana, was an American Impressionist artist who worked primarily in the Richmond, Indiana area. He was a member of the Richmond Group of painters. He worked in oil, watercolor and pastels. He studied with John Elwood Bundy, at the Cincinnati Art Academy and the Boothbay Art School. In 1925 he was a visiting instructor at Miami University.

His work is represented in the collections of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Haan Mansion Museum of Indiana Art, Richmond Art Museum, Earlham College, Miami University Art Museum, Morrisson-Reeves Library, Centerville, Indiana Library. The Richmond Art Museum held a retrospective of his work in 2001, the largest exhibition of his work ever mounted.

8
Libido of the Forest
Paul Klee (1879-1940) German born Swiss
Watercolor on gesso on fabric mounted on cardboard,
10" x 7" (w x h), 1917
The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Source: Various online edited
Paul Klee's unique style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. His art studies began in 1898 in Munich. Later he was involved with the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter, founded by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. He and Kandinsky, both taught at the Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture in Germany. His works reflect his dry humor and his sometimes childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality.

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Vernal Pool Springs Forth

Vernal Pool Springs Forth

in the woods behind my home on Fort Ridge, Shapleigh, Maine on April 16, 2024, painted on April 22, 2024, 12" x 9" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$400

Legs High Studies

Legs High Study 1

painted during our Kennebunkport, Maine drawing group on April 19, 2024, 5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150

Legs High Study 2

painted during our Kennebunkport, Maine drawing group on April 19, 2024, 5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Back Beneath

Back Beneath

painted during our Kennebunkport, Maine drawing group on April 19, 2024, 7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150

Back to Sitting

Back to Sitting

painted during our Kennebunkport, Maine drawing group on April 19, 2024, 5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150

March Avery - Nudes and Self Portrait

March Avery
 Nudes and Self Portrait


Source many various online:
The Avery Style, seen in the works of father Milton (1885-1965), regarded as a major American bridge between Realism and Abstract Expressionism, mother Sally (1902-2003) a working illustrator then full time painter, and daughter March (1932- ), a full time painter, reduces elements to a simplicity of forms, eliminating most details, and developing flattened interlocking shapes with strong colors. March's art includes her usual signature palette of rosy pink, dusty yellow, ochre, and cobalt. While her parents only sketched, March often uses a camera when documenting subject matter, as well as sketching, for initial documentation.
        While growing up, when March Avery showed her father, Milton, a painting, his response was "Paint another one." March Avery believes her father wanted her to become an artist. She said, "I knew no one but artists, so I knew that is all I would ever be." Her mom, Sally, an illustrator, supported their family for years until Milton's art started selling. His art sold well. But Sally didn't really come into her own artistically until her father died and had a long career for her next thirty-eight years.
        March married her college boyfriend Philip Cavanaugh (circa 1932-2022) in 1952 and graduated from Barnard College in 1954 with a degree in philosophy. She supported him for many years until he earned a doctorate in English. Once he had a diploma and a steady job, she quit her city job and continued painting full time. Her gallery exhibitions began nine years later with her first solo exhibition in 1963, continuing today. March and Philip's son, Sean (1969- ), is also a painter, though not in The Avery Style.

1
Seated Nude
March Avery (1932- ) American
Oil on canvas, 15" x 20" (w x h), 1964
Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York, New York, Sold
Private collection

2
Nude with Upraised Arm
March Avery (1932- ) American
Oil on canvas board, 14" x 18" (w x h), 1973
Bonhams, New York 2023 auction, sold $21,760 USD
Private collection

3
Nude
March Avery (1932- ) American
Oil on canvas, 19" x 12" (w x h), 1963

4
Resting Nude
March Avery (1932- ) American
Oil on canvas, 42" x 18" (w x h), 1989
Kendall Art Gallery, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, sold 1990
Private collection

5
Sleeping Nude
Oil on canvas, 24" x 18" (w x h), 1967
Rago 2021 auction sold $23,750 USD
Rago Arts and Auction Center, Lambertville, New Jersey

6
White Nude
March Avery (1932- ) American
Oil on canvas, 36" x 48" (w x h), 1975
Rago 2004 auction sold $15,000 USD
Rago Auctions, Lambertville, New Jersey

7
Self Portrait (17 years old)
March Avery (1932- ) American
Oil on canvas, 16" x 20" (w x h), 1949
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
Bequest of Ivor and Augusta Green

Established as a painter, March Avery continued her routine of working winters in her New York studio with trips during the rest of the seasons outside New York City to the Catskill Mountains, Provence in southeastern France, and Paestum, an ancient Greek city in Italy. March's oil paintings, sketches and watercolors depict domestic scenes, portraits of friends and family members, landscapes visited and revisited throughout a lifetime, and more. Today, in her nineties she paints at her home studio in New York.

Avery's work is in public collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; Long Island Museum of American Art, Stony Brook, NY; Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN; Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Woodstock, NY; among others.

Sunday, April 21, 2024

Laid Back Studies 1 and 2

Laid Back Study One

painted during our Kennebunkport, Maine drawing group on April 19, 2024, 7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150

Laid Back Study Two

painted during our Kennebunkport, Maine drawing group on April 19, 2024, 12" x 9" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$400


Milton and Sally Michel Avery Paint

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Milton and Sally Michel Avery
Paint Their Art
Female Painter
Milton Avery (1885-1965) American
Oil on canvas, 40" x 32" (w x h), 1945
Christies auction estimate $1,500,000 $2,500,000 USD

Why I enjoy this painting:

Milton Avery uses orange and blue as important color elements, in a semi-abstract composition. The orange shapes float, the focus of the figure and what she's doing. The blues, two tones, can be seen as one, or two, while creating a background for the upper part of the figure to float, this focusing the eye. The red/pink are there, supporting the rest of the painting, the dark read as an anchor. And the tension of the paintbrush about to touch the canvas. You see that brush's tip as about to touch the canvas, based on the figure, and not pulling away having touched it, don't you? And you can imagine what Sally is painting. See six of Sally's figure painting's below.

Throughout their lives, Milton and his wife Sally Michel Avery shared their studio space together, painting side by side, critiquing each other's work, while developing a shared style using abstracted subjects, color fields, and harmonious unusual colors juxtapositions. Their daughter, March, is a painter, too, and in the same style, still painting at 91 years-old in 2024.

Source: Christies
Sally, Milton's painter wife, explained that he was always more focused on color and form than the underlying subject itself, recounting, "His problem was always a painter's problem, which had nothing to do with actually what he was painting. He really thought in terms of shapes and spaces and colors and things like that. And the subject was just something that he used to start a move on this other journey." (Oral history interview with Sally Michel Avery, 1967 November 3. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)

What Sally might've been painting... go figure...

1
Reclining
Sally Michel Avery (1902-2003) American
Oil on canvas board, 20" x 16" (w x h), 1982

2
Reclining Nude
Sally Avery
Oil on canvas board, 16" x 12" (w x h), 1981

3
Nude
Sally Michel Avery (1902-2003) American
Crayon, ink, and graphite on paper,
13" x 16" (w x h), 1989

4
Pale Nude
Sally Michel Avery (1902-2003) American
Oil on canvas board, 36" x 24" (w x h), 1963

5
Nude Asleep
Sally Michel Avery (190218" x 24" (w x h), -2003) American
Oil on canvas board, 1973

6
Model Nude
Sally Michel Avery (1902-2003) American
Oil on canvas, 35" x 49" (w x h), 1978

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Saturday, April 20, 2024

Vernal Spring Pool

Vernal Spring Pool

in the woods behind my home in Shapleigh, Maine on April 16, 2024, painted April 17, 2024 7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Back to Front Go Figure

Back to Front Go Figure

painted on April 17, 2024, 12" x 9" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$400

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Contemplating Spring

Contemplating Spring

painted on April 15, 2024, 10" x 8" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed
$300

Monday, April 15, 2024

Outside Nude Color Full

Outside Nude Color Full

painted on April 8, 2024, 5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150.

Sunday, April 14, 2024

Beholding Yellow Tulips

Beholding Yellow Tulips

potted on my deck railing, growing, from the grocery store set on my home railing in Shapleigh, Maine on March 18, 2024, painted March 31, 2024, 14" x 11" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$500

Vintage Brit Figure Models Art

Then and Now
Vintage Brit Figure Models
Art Guide from a Book
1
The Bookstore Window
Views of London - Charing Cross Road
Wolfgang Suschitzky (1912-2016) Austrian
Gelatin silver prints, 19" x 20" (w x h), 1935 / 1989

Sothebys, London 2018 auction sold

Wolfgang Suschitzky, B.S.C. (British Society of Cinematographers) (1912-2016), was an Austrian-born British documentary photographer, as well as a cinematographer known for his work on Mike Hodges' 1971 film, Get Carter.

This photo is from his book:
Charing Cross Road in the Thirties
Photographs by Wolf Suschitzky
The Photo Library 9
Dirk Nishen Publishing, London, UK, 1989

From the "introduction" and various sources:
"Charing Cross Road in the 1930s was far from being a respectable street. It was a nighttime pleasure street, a promiscuous mix of activities. Foyles was the bookstore, a fabled place, "the largest bookstore in the world," all five floors. Also on Charing Cross Road in the 1930s was Zwemmer's, the first serious art booksellers in England, plus the second-hand books shops, the staple of the Charing Cross trade. Pornography was a feature of the Charring Cross trade, the goods sometimes secreted in underground showrooms. Marks, Poole's and Josephs made a specialty of art nudes."
        A brass plaque on the stone pilaster facing Charing Cross Road commemorates the former bookshop, Foyles, and Helen Hanff's charming classic long-distance love affair novel, has the bookstore as a central character in the noted book (1970) and film (1987), starring Ann Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins, 84 Charring Cross Road. In the Harry Potter books, the Leaky Cauldron pub is on Charing Cross Road. Author J.K. Rowling chose this road because "it is famous for its bookshops, both modern and antiquarian. This is why I wanted it to be the place where those in the know go to enter a different world."

Looking at the book covers on display in
the windows led to this book:

2
Studies of the Human Figure
with Some Notes on Drawing and Anatomy
G.M, Ellwood and F. R. Yerbury
B. T. Batsford Ltd., London, 1919

3
This copy was acquisitioned by the
Boston Medical Library, January 1927
See and flip though
Studies of the Human Figure online HERE

I painted two quick sketches from the book's suggested plates.
4
XLVI, Model No. 5, "Waking," a beautiful recumbent pose, with useful detail in the foreshortening of the right arm and thighs, and the finely modelled left arm and shoulder. A painter's or moddler's subject, and an interesting anatomical study.

5
XLVI (Plate 66), Model No. 5
7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for
light fastness and permanence, and Uniball
waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs.
Fabriano Artistico cold press rough
100% cotton extra white
watercolor paper,
framed,
$150
6
XXXVIII, Model No. 1, A wonderful pose expressive of hope and vitality. The foreshortening is extremely well caught, and an anatomical rendering of the pose is an interesting task.

7
XXXVIII (Plate 39), Model No. 1
7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for
light fastness and permanence, and Uniball
waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs.
Fabriano Artistico cold press rough
100% cotton extra white
watercolor paper,
framed,
$150.

Saturday, April 13, 2024

The Art of Tulip Conversation

The Art of Conversation

between yellow tulips, potted, from the grocery store set on my home railing in Shapleigh, Maine on March 18, 2024, painted March 31, 2024, 14" x 11" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$500

Friday, April 12, 2024

Pink Tulip Five & and One Nestled

Pink Tulip Five & and One Nestled

from the grocery store in a pot in my Shapleigh, Maine yard on March 24, 2024 painted on March 31, 2024, 10" x 8" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$300

Thursday, April 11, 2024

Tulip to the Sun

Tulip to the Sun

from the grocery store in a pot in my Shapleigh, Maine yard on March 24, 2024, painted on Mar 29, 2024, 5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

A Splash of Pink Tulips

A Splash of Pink Tulips

painted on April 2, 2024, 12" x 9" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$300

Matisse and the Girl with Tulips

Matisse and the Girl with Tulips
They're pink tulips...

1
Girl with Tulips
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)) French
Oil on canvas, 29" x 36" (w x h), 1910
Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia

Source State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia notes edited:
The interaction between the flowers and the human figure forms the central theme. The strong stems of the tulips forcing themselves upwards in an expression of the coming spring, the thick green color of the sharp leaves, everything carries within it the energy of growth. Nature and human together form a harmonious whole.
        Jeanne Vaderin, the model for this painting, was in convalescence at Issey-les-Moulineaux, where Matisse rented a house in 1910. Matisse and his wife affectionately called her Jeannette. In this painting there is something gentle and melancholy, something fragile and refined in the face and slightly asymmetrical figure of Jeanette. "My models, the figures of people, are never static elements in an interior. They are the main theme of my work," wrote Matisse in 1908, two years previous to this painting. Jeannette was also his model for a number of other works, including a series of bronze heads.

2
Girl with Tulips
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)) French
Charcoal on paper, 23" x 29" (w x h), 1910
MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York

3
Jeannette (I) - frontal
Henri Matisse (1869-1954) French
Bronze, 13" x 9" x 10"
1910 winter to spring at Issy-les-Moulineaux

4
Jeannette (I) - profile
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)) French
Bronze, 13" x 9" x 10"
1910 winter to spring at Issy-les-Moulineaux

Source" MOMA notes edited:
In the process of creating five busts of Jeanne Vaderin, affectionately known to Matisse and his wife as Jeannette, between 1910 and 1916, Matisse radically reconfigured traditional representation of the human face. Jeannette I and II were created directly from the model, which is evident in their characteristic, hawk-like profiles.
        These two works then served as templates for Jeannette III, IV, and V. As he progressed with the series, Matisse dramatically abstracted his subject, organizing the head into increasingly simplified chunks. In 1908 he'd explained that his goal in portraiture was not to achieve visual precision but rather to reveal the "essential qualities" of his sitters, qualities, he felt, that physical imitation could not capture.

5
Jeannette (IV) -profile
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)) French
Bronze, 24" x 11" x 11"
September 1910 or February to
mid-July 1911 at Issy-les-Moulineaux