Henri Matisse

Small Head with Comb

1906

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Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse

Small Head with Comb

1906

Physical Qualities Bronze, 3 1/16 x 2 3/16 x 2 1/2 in. (7.8 x 5.6 x 6.4 cm.)

Credit Line The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland

Object Number 1950.427

This installation of works by Henri Matisse with an ornate desk recreates a wall of Etta Cone’s living room in Baltimore (see image). For Cone, her apartment was a space for family and highlighting personal travels with works of art acquired while away from home. She displayed paintings of odalisques, or concubines, appearing semi-nude or clad in costumes, which Europeans and Americans associated with the Eastern Mediterranean world. While Matisse claimed to have seen odalisques during his travels, he was more likely inspired by Persian and Islamic art he avidly studied in museums across Europe and collected in North Africa. Installed with BMA 1950.255; 1950.452; 1950.428; and on 1950.1985.8-.9 (Please see Text Entries for image used with label)

The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1949; Etta Cone, Baltimore, by purchase from the artist, summer 1922.

"Four Americans in Paris: The Collection of Gertrude Stein and her Family", MOMA, December 18, 1970 - March 1, 1971; The Baltimore Museum of Art, April 4-June 13, 1971; San Francisco Museum of Art, September 15-October 31, 1971.

Wildenstein & Company, New York, "Cone Collection", March 29-May 4, 1974.

Brenda Richardson, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, "Matisse in The Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art", August 24-October 14, 1979.

The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Denver Art Museum, "Matisse from The Baltimore Museum of Art", March 11, 2000-June 25, 2000; circulated to the Birmingham Museum of Art, July 23, 2000-September 17, 2000; The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, October 10, 2000-January 28, 2001.

Dorothy Kosinski, Jay McKean Fisher, Steven Nash; BMA, Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center, "Matisse: Painter as Sculptor", Dallas, January 21-April 29, 2007; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, June 9-September 16, 2007; The Baltimore Museum of Art, October 28, 2007-February 3, 2008, no. 73.

Katy Rothkopf, BMA, "Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore", circulated to The Jewish Museum, New York, 6 May-25 September 2011, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2 June-23 September 2012, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, 3 November 2012-10 February 2013.

Christian Zervos, 'Sculpture des Peintre D'Aujourd'hui,' "Cahier D'Art," no. 7, Paris 1928, (3rd year), p. 280.

Etta Cone, "The Cone Collection of Baltimore, Maryland" (Baltimore: 1934) plate. # 119d.

"Handbook of the Cone Collection," (Baltimore: BMA, 1955) 45, no. 147.

'Cone Bequest,' "BMA News," Oct. 1949, p. 24, no. 114.

Alfred H. Barr, Jr., "Matisse: His Art and His Public," (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1951) 100, 326, 557.

"Handbook of the Cone Collection, Revised Edition," (Baltimore: BMA, 1967) no. 136.

Albert Elsen, 'The Sculpture of Matisse, Part III: Primitivism, Partial Figures and Portraits,' "Art Forum," 7: 3, 1968, p. 26f.

Albert Elsen, "The Sculpture of Matisse," (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1972) 120 (refered to as "Small Head").

Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, "The Sculpture of Henri Matisse," (London: The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1984) cat. # 27.

Monod-Fontaine, Isabelle. Matisse: Œuvres de Henri Matisse. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1989, page 152 (published as “Petite tête au peigne (tête dorée”).

Dorothy Kosinski, Jay McKean Fisher, Steven Nash, "Matisse: Painter as Sculptor," (Yale University Press: New Haven and London, 2007) cat. no. 73, p. 271, ill. p. 194.

Karen Levitov, "Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore," New York: The Jewish Museum, 2011, pp. 35, 76, pl. 11, ill.

Inscribed: "HM 6/10" on the nape of the figures neck.

Markings: No foundry mark.