Models an important part of Matisse’s practice

“My models…are the principal theme of my work,” stated Henri Matisse in 1939. In the essay “Notes d’un peintre sur son dessin,” published in the journal Le Point, he reflected on the importance ascribed to the human figure throughout his career. Working from a live model had always been an essential part of his creative process, as he would carefully observe his model in a variety of situations and positions, then would select a pose that reflected her character. Underscoring their importance, he declared “I depend absolutely on my model.”

Over the years, much attention has been given to Matisse’s models and the major role they played in his work. According to curator Ann Dumas, in the 2011 exhibition catalogue Matisse and the Model, Matisse relied mainly on family and friends to model for him during the early years of his career. Most frequently, his wife Amélie and daughter Marguerite appeared in his works from the turn of the 20th century. He also sometimes used female students in his art academy, including the German sculptor Greta Moll and the Russian painter Olga Meerson, who modeled for some of his early small-scale sculptures. As he became more financially secure, he would hire professional models and would develop intense working relationships with them, often painting a single model exclusively over the course of months or years.

Here, we highlight some of the models depicted in Matisse and the Sea, as well as some other significant women who appear in Matisse’s works throughout his career.

Pre-War years in the south: Loulou Brouty

Between 1904 and 1910, the artist and his family frequently traveled to the south of France, visiting coastal areas such as Saint-Tropez and Collioure, where Matisse honed his interest in painting the sea. On these extended trips, he often brought along professional models from Paris. In 1909, the Matisse family spent the summer in Cavalaire-sur-Mer, on the Mediterranean coast. Accompanying them on this trip was Matisse’s current favorite model, Loulou Brouty, a young Parisian woman with dark hair, tanned skin, and “catlike features,” as described by Hilary Spurling in “Matisse and His Models” from Smithsonian Magazine. She appeared in numerous paintings from this period, likely including the enigmatic Bather, currently on view in Matisse and the Sea, which depicted her from behind, wading in ankle-deep intense blue water. According to Spurling, Brouty was essentially part of the family on this trip. When she wasn’t modeling, she also spent time with Amélie, played with the children, and took swimming lessons from Matisse. Brouty was an important model for Matisse as he explored greater abstraction of forms and colors in his works from this period.

Early years in Nice: Antoinette Arnoud and Henriette Darricarrère

Matisse began wintering in Nice in 1917 and continued to do so through the 1920s. He found local models to work with there. First, in 1919, he employed Antoinette Arnoud, a fashionable, dark-haired 19-year-old, who, according to Hilary Spurling in Matisse the Master, was originally intended to be a stand-in model for Marguerite, who was unable to travel to Nice with the family. Dumas describes Arnoud as an elegant young woman who relished modeling the extravagant hats and clothes Matisse selected for her and whose graceful presence complemented the growing decorative aesthetic of his paintings at the time. Arnoud appears in numerous paintings from Matisse’s early stays in Nice, including multiple images depicting her in his hotel studio with a window overlooking the bay.

Arnoud was followed by Henriette Darricarrère, who would become Matisse’s most important model of the Nice period. He worked with her exclusively for seven years. Spurling notes in “Matisse and His Models” that during that time, Darricarrère became very close to the family, and they, in turn, treated her as an adoptive daughter. Amélie was very fond of her, and Marguerite saw her as a younger sister. As for Darricarrère’s relationship with Matisse, when she wasn’t modeling, she assisted him in his studio, and even received painting lessons from him. She featured in many of his popular depictions of “odalisques”—a European fantasy image of an Arab harem girl. Dumas points out that Matisse used these images as an excuse to paint the nude figure, but also to highlight the sumptuous textiles and decorations in his Nice studio interior. Darricarrère left Matisse’s employ in 1927, and years later, the painter-model relationship came full circle, according to curator Emily Talbot, when her teenage daughter posed for Matisse’s chapel decorations in Vence.

The 1930s: Lydia Delectorskaya

In 1930, Matisse dealt with a creative block by traveling across the world, including trips to the United States and the French colonies in Polynesia. Though he painted little on this voyage, the experience left him feeling renewed and provided him with inspiration that he would continue to mine throughout the rest of his career. After his return, he met a 22-year-old Russian immigrant named Lydia Delectorskaya. As Spurling describes in Matisse the Master, he originally hired her to assist him on his large-scale mural The Dance for the American collector Albert Barnes. She also served as a caregiver to Amélie, who had been in ill health for several years.

It wasn’t until 1935 that Delectorskaya first modeled for Matisse. Lydia herself, quoted by Dumas, commented that she was not Matisse’s “type”; whereas his previous models were dark-haired and had a “Mediterranean” look, she was pale and blond, with blue eyes. From 1935 to 1938, she would be his principal model, but more significantly, she served as his secretary and managed his studio, effectively displacing Amélie as his primary support person. As Spurling notes in “Matisse and His Models,” it was likely because of this—and not a romantic affair between painter and model—that led to Amélie demanding Delectorskaya’s removal, and the Matisses’ eventual separation in 1939.

After his divorce, Matisse re-hired Delectorskaya, and they fled Paris to Nice on the eve of World War II. She would remain with him for the rest of his life, playing an instrumental role in running his studio and caring for him as his health declined. According to Spurling, Matisse’s final work was a ballpoint pen drawing of Lydia, made the day before he died.

Matisse and the Black model

Most of the women Matisse depicted were white Europeans, but interspersed throughout the years are images of Black models as well. Curator Denise Murrell discusses the women of color who appeared in Matisse’s work in the exhibition catalogue Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today (2018–2019). While there were a handful of early examples in Matisse’s oeuvre, including the 1908 sculpture, Two Women (originally title “Two Black Women” and based on a photograph rather than a live model), his most sustained effort to depict Black models came during the 1940s. He met Carmen Lahens, a Haitian dancer who performed in Paris and later lived in Nice, and she sat for numerous portraits between 1943 and 1946. She was one of the primary models for Matisse’s illustrations of Charles Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal, published in 1947.

Around the same time, Matisse also embarked on his final series of paintings, using a second Black model, Elvire Van Hyfte. Van Hyfte, of Belgian-Congolese descent, had a degree in journalism and could speak on a variety of topics; Murrell comments that she and Matisse had a cordial relationship and she was one of his favorite companions when Lydia was away. In each painting, she is depicted as the epitome of modern elegance and sophistication, stylishly dressed in a white gown, often embellished with jewelry, and portrayed against a flat, decorative red background.

Murrell also notes Matisse’s interest in other significant Black performers, including the dancers Katherine Dunham and Josephine Baker, both of whom performed in Paris during the 20th century. Though neither woman actually posed for the artist, their likenesses appear in some of Matisse’s major paper cut-outs in the last years of his life. Dunham, who has strong connections to East St. Louis, is likely represented in Creole Dancer, while Baker, a St. Louis native, is depicted in La négresse, which references her iconic banana dances.