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Cat. 1  Standing Female Nude Seen from the Back, 1900/01 Cat. 2  Self-Portrait, c. 1901 Cat. 3  The Serf, 1900–03 Cat. 4  Nude in Profile, 1903–04 Cats. 5–6  Boats, 1905 • Grounded Fishing Boat, 1905 Cats. 7–8  Madame Matisse with Her Fan, 1906 • Nude in a Folding Chair, 1906 Cats. 9–11  Woman Leaning on Her Hands, 1905 • Thorn Extractor, 1906 • Still Life with Geranium, 1906 Cats. 12–13  Standing Female Nude with Chair, 1907 • Seated Female Nude, One Foot on a Stool, 1910 Cats. 14–15  Small Crouching Nude without an Arm, 1908 • Standing Female Nude, Twisting toward Her Back, 1908 Cat. 16  Seated Female Nude, Holding One Knee, with a Sketch of a Foot, Aug. 1909 Cat. 17  Girl with a Cat, 1910 Cat. 18  Female Nude Lying Facedown on a Table, 1911/early 1912 Cat. 19  Portrait of Elsa Glaser, 1914 Cat. 20  Portrait of Walter Pach, 1914 Cats. 21–22  Still Life with Goldfish III, 1914/15 • Still Life with Goldfish V, 1914/15 Cat. 23  Young Girl with Braids, c. 1916 Cat. 24  Apples, 1916 Cat. 25  Bathers by a River, March 1909–10, May–November 1913, and early spring 1916–October (?) 1917 Cat. 26  Laurette with a Cup of Coffee, 1916–17 Cats. 27–28  Woman with a Shawl, in a Garden, c. 1918 • Young Girl with Long Hair, c. 1919 Cat. 29  Girl in Plumed Hat (Mlle Antoinette), 1919 Cat. 30  Interior at Nice, 1919 or 1920 Cat. 31  Reclining Nude, c. 1920 Cat. 32  Portrait of Léonide Massine, 1920 Cat. 33  Woman on a Rose Divan, 1921 Cat. 34  Woman before an Aquarium, 1921–23 Cats. 35–37  Reclining Female Nude with a Raised Knee, 1923/24 • Seated Nude with Arms Raised, c. 1925 • Seated Nude, 1922–29, cast 1951 Cat. 38  Seated Woman with Full-Skirted Dress, c. 1926 Cat. 39  Lemons on a Pewter Plate, 1926 Cat. 40–41  Dancer Resting, 1927 • Seated Dancer, 1927 Cat. 42  Young Woman with a Veil, 1929 Cat. 43  Portrait of John Dewey, 1930/34 Cats. 44–45  Study for Anemones and Woman (Study for “Odalisque, Harmony in Blue”), 1937 • Anemones in a Vase, 1944 Cat. 46  Girl in Yellow and Blue with a Guitar, 1939 Cat. 47  Daisies, 1939 Cats. 48–49  Head of a Woman, 1941 • Head of a Woman, 1942 Cat. 50  Matisse’s Dining Room—1941, 1941 Cat. 51  Blue Vase on a Venetian Armchair, 1943 Cats. 52–54  Girl at a Table, 1944 • Young Woman before a Table, 1944 • Woman Seated at a Table with Fruit and Pitcher, 1944 Cat. 55  Bust of a Woman, 1944 Cat. 56  Untitled, 1947 Cat. 57  Head, 1947 Cat. 58  Oceania, the Sea, 1948

Cat. 3  The Serf, 1900–03 - Inline 360

Cat. 3

The Serf
1900–03, cast c. 1908.[1]
Paris, 1900–03,[2] cast c. 1908[3]
Bronze; edition 1/10; 91.5 × 30.5 × 34.3 cm (36 × 12 × 13 1/2 in.)
Signed and numbered: Henri Matisse / 1/10 (top of base)
Inscribed: Le Serf (front of base)
Marked: A. BINGEN & COSTENOBLE./Fondeurs. Paris. (upper left, back of base)
The Art Institute of Chicago, Edward E. Ayer Endowment in memory of Charles L. Hutchinson, 1949.202

Between 1900 and 1903, Henri Matisse repeatedly reworked the soft and likely dampened clay of one of his earliest sculptures, The Serf, in what he reported to be up to five hundred studio sessions.[4] Outside of anatomical representation, he was searching for a constellation of elementary marks that together could evoke the human form. The artist’s approach responded to the work of Auguste Rodin and Paul Cézanne.[5] In 1899, one year before he began work on The Serf, Matisse purchased a plaster bust of the journalist Henri Rochefort by Rodin (1884–98; fig. 3.1) that had been in the collection of Édouard Manet and Cézanne’s Three Bathers (1879–82; fig. 3.2) from the dealer Ambroise Vollard.[6] Both works exemplify the use of a balanced synthesis of constructive marks to represent their subjects.[7] In Matisse’s early studio nudes, including Nude Study in Blue (c. 1899–1900; fig. 3.3) and Male Model—Sketch (c. 1900; fig. 3.4), he similarly experimented with shedding naturalism and increasingly used the simplified flat strokes of color that informed his approach in The Serf. He echoed themes from Rodin’s work by using the aging Italian model Giovanni Bevilacqua (sometimes spelled Bevilaqua), who resembled Cesidio Pignatelli, a model that Rodin used for a number of early works, including The Walking Man (c. 1900; fig. 3.5).[8] Matisse’s choice confounded peers such as the painter Jean Puy, who dismissed Bevilacqua as “an anthropoid” with “the face of an orang-outang [sic], half-hidden in his long hair and beard.”[9] Contrasting with the dynamic pose of The Walking Man, the heavy stance of the figure in The Serf remains firmly anchored to the ground. Instead of the fragmented pairing of anatomical and material marks in Rodin’s sculpture, Matisse adopted a holistic approach and evoked the body by creating visual correlations between gestural modeled forms.[10] In place of a naturalistic depiction of a collarbone or chest in The Serf, for example, he balanced concave slices above and below two lumpy masses over the figure’s stomach to accentuate the downward-facing head and angled pose of the body.1

Figs. 3.1–3.5

A rough, textured head-and-shoulders form stands upright, with an irregular rounded top and bulbous protrusions on the left and right. Moving downward, the form widens into thick shoulders and a broad torso, its surface marked by deep creases and ridges. Colors are light tan, beige, and gray with darker brown accents in recessed areas.

Fig. 3.1


Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917). Bust of Rochefort, 1884–98. Plaster; 72.5 × 43.5 × 44 cm (28 1/2 × 17 1/8 × 17 5/8 in.). Musée Rodin, Paris, S.1667.

At the top, gray-blue sky with white clouds is crossed by brown tree branches, with dense green and yellow foliage below. In the foreground left to right, three nude adults with light skin are by shallow water: one stands facing away with long light-brown hair and a hand extended toward the water; the second kneels in the water with reddish hair; the third sits on the grass with long dark hair and a hand raised to the head. The trees are taller than the figures, and colors are mostly green and yellow with brown trunks and blue‑gray sky, with the water showing yellow‑green reflections.

Fig. 3.2


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839–1906). Three Bathers, Aix-en-Provence, 1879–82. Oil on canvas; 55 × 52 cm (21 11/16 × 20 1/2 in.). Petit Palais, Paris, gift of M. and Mme Henri Matisse, 1936, PPP02099.

Alt text for the image

Fig. 3.3


Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954). Nude Study in Blue, c. 1899–1900. Oil on canvas; 73 × 54.3 cm (28 11/16 × 54 3/8 in.); framed: 95 × 76 × 11 cm (37 3/8 × 29 7/8 × 4 5/16 in.). Tate, bequeathed by C. Frank Stoop 1933, N04718.

Centered, a full-length adult person stands facing forward, shown in shades of black, gray, and white. From top to bottom: a roughly defined head, broad shoulders and chest, arms hanging at the sides with hands near the thighs, and straight legs ending in visible feet. Dark gray areas cluster around the figure, with lighter gray space surrounding it, and no other objects or people are present.

Fig. 3.4


Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954). Male Model—Sketch, Paris, c. 1900. Oil on canvas. Location unknown.

Alt text for the image

Fig. 3.5


Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917). The Walking Man, c. 1900. Bronze; height: 84.1 cm (33 1/8 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago, bequest of A. James Speyer, 1987.217.

Matisse’s work in sculpture informed his painting; however, The Serf also tested the expressive potential of abstract shapes and forms in the round. His comparably sized painting Male Model (c. 1900; fig. 3.6) shows Bevilacqua in a similar pose in wide brushstrokes of muted blue, green, and flesh tones.[11] To accentuate the stance of the figure in The Serf, which turns diagonally from the base, the artist added thick, textured masses to the upper back and belly to balance its exaggerated profile. As Matisse wrote in his “Notes d’un peintre” of 1908, the same year this work was cast, “what interests me most is neither still life nor landscape but the human figure . . . I do not insist upon all the details of the face, on setting them down one-by-one with anatomical exactitude. . . . I discover amid the lines of the face those which suggest the deep gravity that persists in every human being.”[12] In keeping with his statement, the artist distilled the human figure into modeled and cut surfaces in The Serf. A 1904 photograph of Matisse in his studio next to an earlier version of the sculpture (fig. 3.7) highlights one of the most dramatic changes the artist made: removing the figure’s arms. He likely had a two-part plaster mold produced from the original version of The Serf to create a plaster cast. When the artist moved to a new studio at the Hôtel Biron in 1908, which was also occupied by Rodin and became the Musée Rodin in 1919, the plaster cast reportedly suffered damage that may have resulted in the artist cutting off its arms before producing a piece mold for sand casting.[13] Alongside the accumulation of material on the trunk of the figure, the artist’s choice to cut off the arms calls attention to the core of the sculptural body and its careful balance of light-reflecting masses that embody the stark physicality of The Serf.2

Across the upper and left areas, teal and blue-green walls meet, with a vertical dark line near the right. In the center, an unclothed adult stands facing right, with short black hair and light skin tones in pinks, creams, and purples; the figure is large and fills most of the middle. At the right middle, a brown object hangs from the dark line above a maroon rectangular section. Toward the bottom, a green platform extends forward, and the person stands on it with feet apart near the front edge.

Fig. 3.6


Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954). Male Model, Paris, c. 1900. Oil on canvas; 99.3 × 72.7 cm (39 1/8 × 28 5/8 in.). The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Kay Sage Tanguy and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Funds, 377.1975.

Top and back wall hold several framed pictures and a large rectangular panel. On the left, a person wearing a light shirt and dark pants stands beside pale sculptures on a worktable, and near the lower center another person sits close to the floor. On the right, a human figure sculpture in light tones stands on a tall wooden stand, about the same height as the standing person including the base, with small objects and a bowl on the floor nearby; overall colors are brown, beige, black, and white.

Fig. 3.7


Henri Matisse and The Serf (1900–03, cast c. 1908) with arms, c. 1904. Dr. Claribel and Miss Etta Cone Papers, Manuscripts Collections, The Baltimore Museum of Art. Photographer unknown.

This edition of The Serf, numbered 1 of 10, was cast by Bingen & Costenoble in Paris in the fall of 1908 for Matisse’s early supporters and close friends Michael and Sarah Stein of Paris and San Francisco (see fig. 3.8). It entered the collection of the Art Institute in 1949.[14]
Marin Sarvé-Tarr
3

From left to right, a round clock and a framed set of head images hang above stacked chairs and a small standing figure on a high table. In the foreground left-center, a large nude male statue stands on a wooden platform. At center, several adults in long coats and dresses stand beneath a tall light curtain, with a small sculpture on a short pedestal in front of them. On the right, another small standing figure rests on a ladder-top table between two adults, and higher on the wall an oval recess holds a standing figure; colors are tan, brown, and dark gray, and the central statue is the largest object.

Fig. 3.8


Henri Matisse’s sculpture class in the Couvent du Sacré-Cœur, boulevard des Invalides, Paris, c.1909. From left to right: Jean Heiberg, an unknown woman, Sarah Stein, Hans Purrmann, Henri Matisse, and Patrick Henry Bruce. Archives Henri Matisse, Paris. Photographer unknown.

Technical Summary4

Henri Matisse initially made the model of The Serf in a soft material, probably clay but possibly a commercial material such as Plasticine.[15] A two-part plaster mold would have been made from the soft clay version, likely by a professional mold maker. The model would almost certainly have been damaged or destroyed when the mold was removed. From this waste mold a plaster version of The Serf was then cast,[16] and with this master plaster, a professional mold maker would then carefully produce a piece mold for sand casting.5

The plaster model of The Serf was damaged when Matisse moved to a new studio at the Hôtel Biron in 1908.[17] Possibly as a result of this accident, Matisse altered the form of the sculpture and removed its arms. From the final, completed form of The Serf, another piece mold was made for sand casting.6

The bronze edition of The Serf was sand cast around 1908 at Bingen & Costenoble, Paris. It has a dark-brown patina. X-rays of the object show evidence of the casting. The bronze cast required extensive surface finishing by foundry specialists to remove sprues and vents. The raised ridges of joins between piece mold parts were also removed, except for a vertical seam along the left side of the head.
7

Signature8

Incised: Henri Matisse 1/10 (top of base, back proper left corner) (fig. 3.9).
9

Top to bottom, a rough, dark brown surface with gray highlights fills the frame. Across the center, shallow incised text reads “Henri Matisse” from left to right. At the lower right, a small fraction “1/10” is etched. The bottom edge shows a slightly rounded corner and uneven texture.

Fig. 3.9


Detail of Matisse’s The Serf (1900–03, cast c. 1908) showing the signature and edition number. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1949.202.

Structure and Technique10

Composition11

Bronze (an alloy of primarily copper and tin).[18] ICP-OES analysis was conducted on a sample (fig. 3.10).[19]
12

Element

Percentage of total weight

Figure

Base

Copper

92.5

93.7

Zinc

4.06

4.11

Tin

1.95

1.32

Lead

1.15

0.70

Iron

0.18

0.05

Nickel

0.03

0.03

Arsenic

0.06

0.05

Chromium

0.00

0.00

Antinomy

0.03

0.03

Normalized elemental composition of Matisse’s The Serf (1900–03).

fig. 3.10

Fabrication13

Method14

Sand-cast. The figure and the base were cast separately and later bolted together.
15

Foundry16

Bingen & Costenoble, Paris.[20]
17

Patina18

The sculpture has a dark-brown patina.
19

Evidence of Casting Technique20

The core is sandy and gray-black in color (fig. 3.11). X-rays of the object (fig. 3.12) show many thin wire core pins (fig. 3.12.1). Two metal rods, about 5 mm thick, in the interior of the proper left leg extend up into the proper left side of the torso; a one-centimeter-thick curved rod, roughly U-shaped and now positioned at an angle across the pelvis, appears to be wrapped with wire at its midpoint (fig. 3.12.2). These rods (fig. 3.12.4) may have been part of an armature for the core; the leg rods might also be core vents.
21

At the top edge, a shallow notch sits at the center of a mostly gray, box-like surface with patches of brown and green. On the left side, a smaller, roughly oval recess with a ridged border contains several short round pegs. On the right side, a larger oval recess with a similar border has more pegs and a deep hollow. Near the lower center, a beige paper label with printed text including “The Cleveland Museum of Art” and “Henri Matisse” is taped to the surface, and a narrow curved strip lies along the bottom edge.

Fig. 3.11


Bottom of Matisse’s The Serf (1900–03, cast c. 1908) showing the core material. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1949.202.

Alt text for the image
Alt text for the image
Alt text for the image
Alt text for the image

Fig. 3.12

X-rays of Matisse’s The Serf (1900–03, cast c. 1908). The Art Institute of Chicago, 1949.202.

Conservation History22

Areas where the patina had been lost and adjacent intact areas had been toned with a thick, green-tinted wax at some point, possibly following a 1983 cleaning.[21] In 1990 Art Institute conservators reduced the thick wax where the original patina was still present and inpainted the loss areas with acrylic paint.[22]
23

Condition Summary24

The sculpture is structurally sound. The patina and some fine surface detail have been worn away at the top of the head, the shoulders, the shoulder blades, the stomach, the penis, and the proper left foot.

Suzanne R. Schnepp
25

Purchased by and cast for Michael (Mar. 26, 1865–Sept. 9, 1938) and Sarah Stein née Sarah Samuels (July 27, 1870–Sept. 15, 1953), Paris and Garches, France, and Palo Alto, CA, c. 1908–at least Feb. 1947.[23]26

Earl Stendahl Gallery, Hollywood, CA, probably by Feb. 1, 1949.[24]27

Sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, May 2, 1949.[25]
28

Possibly Paris, Grand Palais, Salon d’Automne, Oct. 1–Nov. 8, 1908, cat. 910, as Le serf (bronze).[26]29

New York, Museum of Modern Art, Henri Matisse, Nov. 13, 1951–Jan. 13, 1952, cat. 76 (ill.), as The Slave, (1900–03); Cleveland Museum of Art, Feb. 5–Mar. 16, 1952; Art Institute of Chicago, Apr. 1–May 4, 1952; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, May 22–July 6, 1952 (New York, Cleveland, and Chicago only).[27]30

Philadelphia, Museum of Art, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, Oct. 11–Dec. 7, 1952, cat. 75, as The Slave, 1900–03; Art Institute of Chicago, Jan. 22–Mar. 8, 1953; New York, Museum of Modern Art, Apr. 29–Sept. 7, 1953.31

Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Henri Matisse: Dessins et sculpture, May 29–Sept. 7, 1975, cat. 166 (ill.), as Le serf, 1900–1903; Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Sept. 27–Oct. 26, 1975 (as Henri Matisse: Dessins et sculpture/tekeningen en sculpturen), cat. 158 (ill.), as Le serf/De lijfeigene, 1900–03.[28]32

Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 6, 2013–Feb. 16, 2014, no cat. no. (ill.), as The Serf, 1900–04.
33

Possibly Société du Salon d’Automne, Catalogue des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, dessin, gravure, architecture et art décoratif, exh. cat. (Librairie Administrative Paul Dupont, 1908), p. 127, cat. 910, as Le serf (bronze).[29]34

Fiske Kimball, “Matisse: Recognition, Patronage, Collecting,” Philadelphia Museum Bulletin 43, no. 217 (Mar. 1948), p. 39, as The Slave.35

Fiske Kimball, “Discovery from America,” ArtNews 47, no. 2 (Apr. 1948), p. 31, as The Slave.36

Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Matisse: His Art and His Public (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1951), pp. 305, 557, as The Slave (Le serf), Paris (1900–03) and The Slave 1900–02.[30]37

Museum of Modern Art, Henri Matisse, exh. cat. introduction by Alfred H. Barr, Jr. (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1951), pp. 11, cat. 76; 14 (ill.), as The Slave, (1900–03).[31]38

Museum of Modern Art, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, exh. cat., introduction by Andrew Carnduff Ritchie (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1952), p. 45, cat. 75, as The Slave, 1900–03.39

Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1952), p. 58 (ill.), as The Slave, 1900–03.40

Andrew C. Ritchie, “Sculpture of the Twentieth Century,” Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 47, no. 1 (Feb. 1, 1953), pp. 8–9 (ill.), as The Slave, 1900–1903.41

Art Institute of Chicago, “Matisse Retrospective Exhibition,” Calendar of the Art Institute of Chicago 60, no. 2 (Mar. 1966), n. pag. (ill.), as The Slave, 1900–1903. 42

A. James Speyer, “Twentieth-Century European Painting and Sculpture,” Apollo, n.s., 84, no. 55 (Sept. 1966), p. 223, fig. 1, as The Slave, 1900–3.43

Musée National d’Art Moderne, Henri Matisse: Dessins et sculpture, exh. cat., introduction by Dominique Bozo (Centre Georges Pompidou, 1975), pp. 188–90, cat. 166 (ill.), as Le serf, 1900–1903.44

Henri Matisse: Dessins et sculpture/Tekeningen en sculpturen, exh. cat., introduction by Dominique Bozo (Société des Expositions du Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, 1975), cat. 158 (ill.), as Le serf/De lijfeigene, Paris, 1900–03.45

Claude Duthuit, Wanda de Guébriant, and Yve-Alain Bois, Henri Matisse: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre sculpté, ed. Claude Duthuit, trans. Gregory Sims (C. Duthuit, 1997), p. 10, cat. 6, no. 1, as Le Serf—L’Esclave/The Serf—The Slave, Paris, 1900–1903 [cast c. 1908].46

James N. Wood and Debra N. Mancoff, Treasures from the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2000), p. 228 (ill.), as The Serf, 1900–1908.47

Oliver Shell, “Seeing Figures: Exhibition and Vision in Matisse’s Sculpture,” in Dorothy Kosinski, Jay McKean Fisher, and Steven Nash, Matisse: Painter as Sculptor, exh. cat. (Baltimore Museum of Art/Dallas Museum of Art/Nasher Sculpture Center/Yale University Press, 2007), pp. 57 (ill.), 58, as The Serf.48

Jean-Louis Cohen and Tim Benton, Le Corbusier: Le Grand (Phaidon, 2008), p. 175 (ill.).49

Hilary Spurling, Matisse: The Life (Penguin Books, 2009), pp. 156–57, as The Serf.[32]50

Stephanie D’Alessandro and John Elderfield, Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913–1917, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2010), p. 321, as The Serf, 1900–04.51

Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., “Leo Stein: Plates” and “The Stein Residences in Photographs,” in The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde, exh. cat. (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/Yale University Press, 2011), pp. 384, no. 25; 385, pls. 370, 371; 386, no. 17; 387, pls. 373, 374, no. 17; 389, no. 3, pl. 377, as The Serf, 1900–1903.52

Claudine Grammont, “Matisse as Religion: The ‘Mike Steins’ and Matisse, 1908–1918,” trans. Alison Anderson, in The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde, exh. cat., ed. Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/Yale University Press, 2011), p. 152, as The Serf, 1900–1903.[33]53

Robert McD. Parker, “Catalogue of the Stein Collections,” in The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde, exh. cat., ed. Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/Yale University Press, 2011), p. 424, as Serf, 1900–1903 (cast ca. 1908).[34]54

Carrie Pilto, “The Steins Build: Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein–de Monzie, Les Terrasses,” in The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde, exh. cat., ed. Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/Yale University Press, 2011), p. 173, as The Serf, 1900–1903.[35]55

Stephanie D’Alessandro, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from the Art Institute of Chicago, with contributions by Renée DeVoe Mertz, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Kimbell Art Museum, 2013), pp. 6 (ill.), 20 (ill.), as The Serf, 1900–04.56

Stephanie D’Alessandro, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, with contributions by Renée DeVoe Mertz, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2014), pp. 14 (ill.), 19 (ill.), as The Serf, 1900–04.
57

Labels and Inscriptions58

Undated59

Inscription

Location: back of base, proper left side
Method: incised
Content: A. BINGEN & COSTENOBLE/ Fondeurs. Paris (fig. 3.13)[36]
60

Foreground shows a dark brown rectangular base with a rough, rippled surface and a slightly uneven top edge; the front face has pale numbers “49 202” and faint, partially legible letters along the lower edge. At the top left, a lumpy protrusion rises from the base, while the right side is a broad flat area extending to the edge. Background is plain white.

Fig. 3.13


Inscription

Location: top of base, proper left side
Method: incised
Content: Henri Matisse/ 1/1061

Label

Location: back of base, proper left side (above foundry mark)
Method: handwritten
Content: 49.20262

Label

Location: underside of base
Method: handwritten
Content: R953(8?)63

Label

Location: underside of base
Method: handwritten
Content: R9531/R of O/ 1143064

Label

Location: inner side of base
Method: typewritten and handwritten script on printed label
Content: TR 19268/76 [typed]; #13 [handwritten] [red-bordered label affixed with yellowing cellotape]65

Label

Location: taped to inner side of base
Method: typewritten
Content: 52.838 Chicago (fig. 3.14)
66

At the top edge is a shallow rectangular notch, with a gray-blue surface and brown rim surrounding the interior. Moving down, an oval recessed section with raised edging sits on the upper right, containing several short cylindrical pegs and a hollow center; a smaller, similarly shaped recess appears on the lower left. Near the center, a cream paper label affixed at a diagonal shows printed text including “The Cleveland Museum of Art” and “Henri Matisse,” with a small piece of tape above it. Along the bottom edge, a narrow curved strip rests near the center.

Fig. 3.14


Post-1980

Label

Location: underside of base

Method: handwritten script on printed label, passes over tape label

Content: The Cleveland Museum of Art / Henri Matisse / February 6–March 16, 1952 [printed]; 44 [circled] 1-P [handwritten]
67

Examination and Analysis Techniques

X-Radiography

Phillips MG 320, scanned on an Epson Expressions 10000XL flatbed scanner.
68

Inductively Coupled Plasma–Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES)

Performed using a Varian model ICP spectrometer with spectral range from 175 to 785 nm and resolutions of 0.008, 0.015, and 0.040 nm at 160–335, 335–670, and 670–850 nm, respectively. Analysis was performed by Marcus L. Young, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
69

Notes

  1. The work has had the following titles:Mar. 1948: The Slave (Jeffrey Smith writing on behalf of Sarah Stein, as quoted in Fiske Kimball, “Matisse: Recognition, Patronage, Collecting,” Philadelphia Museum Bulletin 43, no. 217 [Mar. 1948], p. 39.)
    Apr. 1948: The Slave (Fiske Kimball, “Discovery from America,” ArtNews 47, no. 2 [Apr. 1948], p. 31.)
    1951: The Slave (Le serf) and The Slave (Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Matisse: His Art and His Public [Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1951], pp. 305, 557.)
    Nov. 1951: The Slave (Museum of Modern Art, Henri Matisse, exh. cat. [Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1951], p. 11, cat. 76; p. 14.)
    1952: The Slave (Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century [Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1952], p. 58.)
    Oct. 1952: The Slave (Museum of Modern Art, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, exh. cat. [Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1952], p. 45, cat. 75.)
    Feb. 1, 1953: The Slave (Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, “Sculpture of the Twentieth Century,” Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 47, no. 1 [Feb. 1, 1953], p. 8.)
    Sept. 1966: The Slave (A. James Speyer, “Twentieth-Century European Painting and Sculpture,” Apollo, n.s., 84, no. 55 [Sept. 1966], p. 223, fig. 1.)
    1997: Le Serf—L’Esclave/The Serf—The Slave (Claude Duthuit and Wanda de Guébriant, Henri Matisse: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre sculpté [Claude Duthuit, 1997], p. 10, cat. 6.)
  2. The production date of the work has been variously noted:
    1951: 1900–03 and 1900–02 (Barr, Matisse, pp. 305, 557.)
    Nov. 1951: 1900–03 (Museum of Modern Art, Henri Matisse, p. 11, cat. 76; p. 14.)
    1952: 1900–03 (Ritchie, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, p. 58.)
    Oct. 1952: 1900–03 (Museum of Modern Art, Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, p. 45, cat. 75.) Feb. 1, 1953: 1900–03 (Ritchie, “Sculpture of the Twentieth Century,” p. 8.)
    Mar. 1966: 1900–03 (Art Institute of Chicago, “Matisse Retrospective Exhibition,” Calendar of the Art Institute of Chicago 60, no. 2 [Mar. 1966], n.pag.)
    Sept. 1966: 1900–03 (Speyer, “Twentieth-Century European Painting and Sculpture,” p. 223, fig. 1.)
    May 1975: 1900–03 (Musée National d’Art Moderne, Henri Matisse: Dessins et sculpture, exh. cat. [Centre Georges Pompidou, 1975], p. 188, cat. 166.)
    Sept. 1975: 1900–03 (Dominique Bozo, Henri Matisse: Dessins et sculpture/tekeningen en sculpturen, exh. cat. [Société des Expositions du Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, 1975], n.pag., cat. 158.)
    1997: 1900–03 (Duthuit and de Guébriant, Henri Matisse, p. 10, cat. 6, no. 1.)
    2010: 1900–04 (Stephanie D’Alessandro, “Interruptions and Returns,” in D’Alessandro and John Elderfield, Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913–1917, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Museum of Modern Art, New York/Yale University Press, 2010, p. 225.)
    2010: 1900–04 (Stephanie D’Alessandro, “Study of ‘Portrait of Sarah Stein,’ ‘Portrait of Sarah Stein,’” in D’Alessandro and Elderfield, Matisse, p. 321.)
    2011: 1900–03 (Claudine Grammont, “Matisse as Religion: The ‘Mike Steins’ and Matisse, 1908–1918,” trans. Alison Anderson; Carrie Pilto, “The Steins Build: Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein–de Monzie, Les Terrasses”; “Leo Stein: Plates”; “The Stein Residences in Photographs”; and Robert McD. Parker, “Catalogue of the Stein Collections,” all in The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde, exh. cat., ed. Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow [San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/Yale University Press, 2011], p. 152; p. 173; p. 384, no. 25; p. 386, no. 17; p. 389, no. 3; p. 424.)
    2013: 1900–04 (Stephanie D’Alessandro, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from the Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. [Art Institute of Chicago/Kimbell Art Museum, 2013], p. 20 [ill.].)
    2014: 1900–04 (Stephanie D’Alessandro, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Art at the Art Institute of Chicago [Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2014], pp. 14 [ill.], 19 [ill.].)
  3. The casting date was published as 1906 in Kimball, “Matisse,” p. 39.
  4. Oliver Shell, “The Serf,” in Dorothy Kosinski, Jay McKean Fisher, and Stephen Nash, Matisse: Painter as Sculptor, exh. cat. (Baltimore Museum of Art/Dallas Museum of Art/Nasher Sculpture Center/Yale University Press, 2007), p. 106. This work has been dated 1900–03 in Duthuit and de Guébriant, Henri Matisse, 1997, p. 10, but some have argued that the artist continued working on the figure in 1904. See Michael P. Mezzatesta, Henri Matisse Sculptor/Painter (Fort Worth: Kimball Art Museum 1984), pp. 38-43; Flam, Matisse: The Man and His Art, 1869–1918 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986), pp. 85-88; and Stephanie D’Alessandro, “Interruptions and Returns,” in D’Alessandro and Elderfield, Matisse, p. 225, and idem, The Age of Picasso and Matisse, p. 20.
  5. In the winter of 1900, Henri Matisse called on Rodin at his studio at rue de l’Université in Paris to show the sculptor his drawings. In 1937, Matisse wrote of the encounter: “I once had the good fortune to receive Rodin’s advice on the subject of my drawings. … Yet the advice he gave in no wise [sic] suited me, and on this occasion Rodin merely showed his petty side.” Matisse, “Divagations,” Verve 1, no. 1 (Dec. 1937), as translated in Jack Flam, Matisse on Art, rev. ed. (University of California Press, 1995), p. 126. As Maurice Denise reported, Rodin told Matisse: “Fuss over it, fuss over it. When you have fussed over it two weeks more, come back and show it to me again.” André Gide, The Journals of André Gide, vol. 1, 1889–1913, trans. Justin O’Brien (Knopf, 1947), p. 174. In 1956, Matisse told Raymond Escholier, “I was taken to Rodin’s studio in the rue de l’Université, by one of his pupils who wanted to show my drawings to his master. Rodin, who received me kindly, was only moderately interested. He told me I had facility of hand, which wasn’t true. He advised me to do ‘fussy’ drawings and to show them to him. I never went back.” Escholier, Matisse, ce vivant (Fayard, 1956), pp. 161–62, as translated in Flam, Matisse on Art, p. 284n6.
  6. Oliver Shell, “Seeing Figures: Exhibition and Vision in Matisse’s Sculpture,” in Kosinski, Fisher, and Nash, Matisse, p. 51. Around the same time, Matisse traded one of his canvases for Paul Gauguin’s Head of a Boy (1886–88); see Barr, Matisse, p. 39. See also Rebecca A. Rabinow, “Vollard and Matisse,” in Rabinow, Douglas W. Druick, and Maryline Assante di Panzillo, Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-garde, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2006), pp. 131–33.
  7. Recalling his early interest in Cézanne’s constructive brushstrokes, Matisse recounted to Alfred H. Barr an 1899 conversation with the post-Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro in which Matisse said, “A Cézanne is a moment of the artist while a[n] [Alfred] Sisley is a moment of nature.” Barr, Matisse, p. 38.
  8. While Bevilacqua has often been assumed to be another name for Cesidio Pignatelli, recent scholarship has distinguished the two Italian models, who were both from Gallinaro in the Val di Comino. See Hilary Spurling, “Matisse’s Italian Models,” in Matisse and the Model, exh. cat., ed. Ann Dumas (Eykyn Maclean, 2011), p. 62. Cesidio Pignatelli (1846–1929) and Giovanni Bevilacqua (1871–1968) were distinguished from each other in Hélène Pinet, Matisse-Rodin, exh. cat. (Musée Rodin, 2009), pp. 85–87; and identified in Michele Santulli, Modelle e Modelli Ciociari nell’arte europea a Roma, Parigi, Londra nel 1800–1900 (Ciociaria Sconosciuta, 2011), pp. 104–06, 168–70.
  9. As quoted in Hilary Spurling, The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse; The Early Years, 1869–1908 (Knopf, 1998), pp. 214–15.
  10. Speaking about The Serf, John Elderfield has argued that “it transposes in fact certain aspects of Matisse’s Cézannism—and with them the self-referential qualities developing in his painting—to a sculptural motif that is indebted to Rodin in stance and gesture; and it revises Rodin’s heroic monumentality to create something far more aesthetically contained.” See Elderfield, Matisse in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1978), p. 32.
  11. See Elderfield, Matisse in the Collection, pp. 28–30.
  12. Henri Matisse, “Notes d’un peintre,” La grande revue 2, no. 24 (Dec. 25, 1908), as translated in Flam, Matisse on Art, p. 41.
  13. Artists including Jean Cocteau had previously also rented rooms at the Hôtel Biron, but by 1911 Rodin occupied the entire residence. It later became the Musée Rodin. Accounts by Hans Purrmann (see fig. 3.8, third from the right), who helped manage the Matisse academy in 1908, and Matisse’s daughter, Marguerite, recall that the arms of The Serf fell off when Matisse moved to his new studio at the Hôtel Biron. See Shell, “Serf,” p. 108n1. However, scholars including Albert Edward Elsen and Jack Flam have argued that Matisse may have cut the arms as an aesthetic decision. Elsen speculates that the artist made the choice “perhaps to liberate the silhouette of the thighs, as Rodin had often done in his partial figures.” See Elsen, The Sculpture of Henri Matisse (Abrams, 1972), p. 30; and Flam, Matisse: The Man and His Art, 1869–1918 (Cornell University Press, 1986), p. 487n18. See also Flam’s essay “The Sculpture of Henri Matisse” in C&M Arts, Henri Matisse: Sculpture (C&M Arts, 1998), n.pag.
  14. Duthuit and de Guébriant, Henri Matisse, p. 10. For more information on Matisse’s casting process, see Ann Boulton, “The Making of Matisse’s Bronzes,” in Kosinski, Fisher, and Nash, Matisse, pp. 73–95.
  15. Clay must be kept damp to avoid cracking as it dries; Plasticine is formulated to be nondrying.
  16. When used to cast a plaster version of a sculpture, a mold is often destroyed when it is removed from the plaster; for this reason it is called a waste mold.
  17. This was reported by the artist’s daughter, Mme Duthuit, as well as the artist Hans Purrmann, who helped manage Matisse’s academy in 1908. See Shell, “The Serf,” p. 108n1.
  18. Modern sculpture alloys are usually actually alloys of copper, tin and zinc, with lead added to improve pouring.
  19. Analysis by Marcus L. Young, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; see Young, ICP-OES report, photocopies on file in the Department of Conservation and Science, Art Institute of Chicago. For more on this technique, see Marcus L. Young, Suzanne Schnepp, Francesca Casadio, Andrew Lins, Melissa Meighan, Joseph B. Lambert, and David C. Dunand, “Matisse to Picasso: A Compositional Study of Modern Bronze Sculptures,” Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 395, no. 1 (Sept. 2009), pp. 171–84, DOI:10.1007/s00216-009-2938-y.
  20. Bingen & Costenoble (and later F. Costenoble), active from 1903 to 1920, and, subsequently, F. Godard, were sand-cast foundries with whom Matisse worked. See Boulton, “The Making of Matisse’s Bronzes,” p. 79. Boulton dates Matisse’s switch to lost-wax casting to about 1925.
  21. Treatment report, 1983, on file in the Department of Conservation and Science, Art Institute of Chicago.
  22. Treatment report, 1990, on file in the Department of Conservation and Science, Art Institute of Chicago.
  23. According to a letter by Jeffrey Smith, written on behalf of Sarah Stein, the Steins asked Matisse to cast “The Slave” in bronze for them (without forearms) in 1906. Letter published in Fiske Kimball, “Matisse: Recognition, Patronage, Collecting,” Philadelphia Museum Bulletin 43, no. 217 (Mar. 1948), p. 39. On the end date and later Palo Alto location, see letter from Fiske Kimball to R. Sturgis Ingersoll, Feb. 25, 1947, Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives; photocopy in curatorial object file, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, Art Institute of Chicago.
  24. Samuel Marx to Earl Stendahl, Feb. 1, 1949, Archives of American Art, Earl Stendahl Gallery, roll 2720, frame 1105; photocopy in curatorial object file, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, Art Institute of Chicago; Committee on Painting and Sculpture meeting minutes, Apr. 26, 1949, p. 2; photocopy also in curatorial object file.
  25. Board of Trustees meeting minutes, May 2, 1949, p. 1; photocopy in curatorial object file, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, Art Institute of Chicago.
  26. Cast 1/10 or 2/10 was included in the 1908 Salon d’Automne.
  27. In the catalogue for this exhibition, dates not recorded on the work appear in parentheses.
  28. Although the signatures [“Hm/10” (Paris) and “H m 1/10” (Brussels)] and foundry (Valsuani) recorded in the exhibition catalogues do not match the museum’s cast, receipt of object 26703 confirms that the Art Institute’s sculpture was included in both venues of the exhibition; photocopy in curatorial object file, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, Art Institute of Chicago.
  29. Cast 1/10 or 2/10 was included in the 1908 Salon d’Automne.
  30. In the plate section of this publication, dates not recorded on the work appear in parentheses.
  31. In this publication, dates not recorded on the work appear in parentheses.
  32. In Hilary Spurling, Matisse: The Life (Penguin Books, 2009), Spurling states that The Serf was one of a dozen works by Matisse that Sarah Stein purchased in “the early months of 1907” (p. 156), although she also notes that the artist did not remove the figure’s arms until 1908 (p. 86). According to Spurling, all of Sarah’s early Matisse acquisitions—including The Serf—were “bought or borrowed from Leo and Gertrude [Stein]” (p. 157).
  33. Not in exhibition. Although the brackets following the mention of the Serf on page 152 direct back to plate 58, which pictures the cast currently in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the text is referring to the cast made for Sarah and Michael Stein. Therefore, the reference on page 152 is to the Art Institute cast, even if the related plate is of a different version. See The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde, ed. Janet Bishop, Cecile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, exh. cat. (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/Yale University Press), pp. 104–05.
  34. Not in exhibition.
  35. Not in exhibition. The text refers to the Art Institute cast, although the illustrative plate is for a different version. For the plate, see The Steins Collect, pp. 104–05.
  36. The association of Bingen & Costenoble began in 1903; Elisabeth Lebon, Dictionnaire des fondeurs de bronze d’art: France, 1890–1950 (Marjon, 2003), p. 112.

How to Cite

Entry by Marin Sarvé-Tarr, technical report by Suzanne R. Schnepp, "Cat. 3 The Serf, 1900–03," in Matisse Paintings, Works on Paper, Sculpture, and Textiles at the Art Institute of Chicago, rev ed. (2019; repr., Art Institute of Chicago, 2025), https://doi.org/10.53269/9780865593022/12

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