About This Artwork

Henri Matisse
French, 1869-1954

Portrait of Léonide Massine, April 28, 1920

Graphite, with erasing on ivory wove paper
393 x 288 mm
Signed recto, lower right, in graphite; "Henri-Matisse"; inscribed lower right, in graphite: "28 avril 1920. Monte Carlo"
Samuel A. Marx Purchase Fund, 1972.427

© 2009 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

New York, Marie Harriman Gallery, "Collection of Leonide Massine," February 18-March 9, 1935, cat. 18.

Edinburgh, College of Art, Edinburgh Festival, "The Diaghilev Exhibition," August 22–September 12, 1954, pp. 33, 48 (ill.), cat. 490; travelled to London, Forbes House, Portrait Gallery, November–January 16, 1955, p. 29, cat. 498.

The University of Chicago, Joseph Regenstein Library, "The Diaghilev Ballet Russes, 1909-1929," June 26-November 15, 1975.

Chicago, Arts Club, "Sixty Years on the Arts Club Stage: A Souvenir Exhibition of Portraits," November 17, 1975–January 3, 1976, pp. 12 (ill), 43, cat. 58.

London, Hayward Gallery, "The Sculpture and Drawings of Henri Matisse," October 4, 1984–Janary 6, 1985, pp. 178 (ill.), 264, cat. 58; travelled to New York, Museum of Modern Art, February 27–May 14, 1985.

Bielefeld, Germany, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, "Picasso Klassizismus: Werke von 1914–1934," April 17–July 31, 1988, pp. 314 (ill.), cat. 16a.

London, Tate Gallery (organizer), "Matisse Picasso," 2002-2003, p. 183 (ill.), cat. 84; shown in New York, Museum of Modern Art, February 12–May 27, 2003.

Publication History

Richard Buckle, In Search of Diaghilev (New York, 1956), no. 32 (ill.).

Gary Tinterow, Master Drawings by Picasso exh. cat. (Cambridge, Mass, 1981), p. 243 (ill.), fig. 27.

John Klein, Matisse Portraits (New Haven, Conn, 2001), p. 136 (ill.), fig. 97.

Ownership History

Given by the artist to Leonide Massine (1896–1979), Paris, 1920 [London 1971]; sold, Sotheby's, London, July 7, 1971, Massine sale, lot 89, to Douglas Cooper [sale catalogue addendum]. Sold by E.V. Thaw and Company New York, to the Art Institute, 1972.