Henri Matisse
Self-Portrait
1936
Scroll
Henri Matisse
Self-Portrait
1936
Physical Qualities
Charcoal with stumping on paper, Sheet: 473 × 391 mm. (18 5/8 × 15 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland
Object Number
1950.12.61
Etta Cone acquired many significant drawings by the artist in 1936 and 1937, including this rare example of the artist turning his penetrating, quizzical gaze on himself. We see the artist in three-quarter profile, but the left edge of the figure is compounded with multiple hazy contours. These abundant pentimenti—partial erasures and revisions that are frequent throughout Matisse’s drawings and paintings—serve as the figure’s cast shadow. They also metaphorically represent the hidden depths of the artist’s self.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1950; Etta Cone purchased from the artist, 1937
Henri Matisse et Pierre Bonnard "Viva la peinture!"
Matisse: Menschen, Masken, Modelle
Matisse Between the Wars
A Modern Influence: Henri Matisse, Etta Cone, and Baltimore
R. Escholier, "Henri Matisse" (Paris: Floury, 1937), illus. cover.
"Handbook of the Cone Collection," Baltimore: BMA, 1955, ill. p. 55.
Committee for the Exhibition of French Drawings from American Collections. De Clouet a Matisse: Dessins Français des Collections Americaines [exposition] 1958-1959. Paris, [1958], plate 202, cat. 208, unpaged.
"Handbook of the Cone Collection," (rev. ed.), Baltimore: BMA, 1967, no. 287.
Elderfield, John. The Drawings of Henri Matisse. New York: Thames and Hudson, published in association with the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Arts Council of Great Britain, 1985, page 201, plate 88, ill.
Guillaud, Maurice, and Jacqueline Guillaud. Matisse: le rythme et la ligne. Paris: Guillaud Editions, 1987, plate no. 694 (published as “Autoportrait”).
Hayden Herrera, "Matisse: A Portrait" (NY: Harcourt Brace & Co, 1993), ill. p. 170.
Carlson, Victor, and Carol Hynning Smith. Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The Baltimore Museum of Art. New York, NY: The American Federation of Arts, 1979, pp. 101, ill
Flam, Jack. Matisse: A Retrospective. Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc, New York, 1988.
Monod-Fontaine, Isabelle. Matisse: Œuvres de Henri Matisse. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1989, page 236, fig. a (published as “Autoportrait”).
Herrera, Hayden. Matisse: A Portrait. Harcourt Brace & Company, New York, 1993, p. 170.
Flam, Jack. Matisse on Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, page 180, fig. 32.
Morgan, Genevieve, ed. Matisse: The Artist Speaks. San Francisco: Collins Publishers, 1996, p. 74, ill.
Klein, John. Matisse Portraits. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001, p. 208, no. 164.
Gabriel, Mary. The Art of Acquiring: A Portrait of Etta and Claribel Cone. [Baltimore, MD]: Bancroft Press, 2002, unpaged plate section.
John Wilmerding. Tom Wesselmann: His Voice and Vision. Rizzoli International Publications, Inc, 2008.
Ortrud Westheider, Michael Philipp and Dorothee Blum. Matisse: People, Masks, Models. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 2008, p. 178
Cozzi, Leslie and Katherine Rothkopf (eds). "A Modern Influence: Henri Matisse, Etta Cone, and Baltimore." Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2021. ill.
Inscribed: lower left in charcoal: "HM 37"