Marie-José en Robe Jaune (Marie-Jose in Yellow dress)

One of a few proof impressions in black, aside from 150 printed in colors. In excellent condition, printed on a sheet with full margins. Catalogue reference: Fribourg 319, Duthuit-Matisse 817

During the late 1930's and the 1940's Matisse developed a more summary handling of form in his paintings using a bold broad outline. Following his illness in 1941, when he quite frequently worked from his bed, he took this development even further making brush drawings worked in broad sweeps of black with no color and no surface detailing. He thought of these drawings as complete works in themselves - calling them monochrome paintings. The secret of their extraordinary power, and at the same time sensitivity, lay in the contrast of the broad black stroke and the white surface of the paper.

In seeking to find an even more dense black for this "monochrome painting" Matisse learned the technique of sugar-lift aquatint from Roger Lacouriere, the master printer in Paris who had pulled the editions for his etched works for very many years. Working on prepared copper plates he could draw with his brush and the dilute sugar solution directly on to the plates while seated or in bed. When the plates were bitten in the acid bath and inked the stroke created a line of deep intense black but with all the vitality and variation of the touch of the brush.

This aquatint is recognized as one of Matisse's greatest prints, and one of the key images of twentieth-century printmaking. In this print Matisse worked directly in the lift-ground aquatint technique. The broad but expressive strokes worked with the brush create not only that unmatched simplicity and purity of shape but also great richness of surface through their texture.