1946, Henri Matisse, Asia (L'Asie) -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the exhibition label: Alain Locke named Matisse as among the European modernists he admired for having "looked upon the African...countenance and discovered there a beauty that calls for a distinctive idiom of both color and modeling.” This painting features the artist's neighbor, the Belgian Congolese journalist Elvire Van Hyfte, posed as a personification of Asia, an opulent tunic draped over a striped dress and necklace that resemble those she wears in Woman in White (on view nearby). Van Hyfte's social visits with Matisse to discuss books likely led to her sittings; she appears in four of his final easel paintings as well as several drawings.
1946, Henri Matisse, Asia (L'Asie) -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the exhibition label: Alain Locke named Matisse as among the European modernists he admired for having "looked upon the African...countenance and discovered there a beauty that calls for a distinctive idiom of both color and modeling.” This painting features the artist's neighbor, the Belgian Congolese journalist Elvire Van Hyfte, posed as a personification of Asia, an opulent tunic draped over a striped dress and necklace that resemble those she wears in Woman in White (on view nearby). Van Hyfte's social visits with Matisse to discuss books likely led to her sittings; she appears in four of his final easel paintings as well as several drawings.