Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Four autograph letters signed ('Henri Matisse') to various recipients, Paris and Nice, 1919-1950
In French. Together 5½ pages, various sizes. Bréal letter with envelope cover. With a secretarial letter, 22 March 1921. Provenance: Sotheby's New York, 18 June 1987, lot 123.

'My equilibrium has been broken by a major piece of decorative work that has lasted three years'. On 23 January 1919, Matisse thanks an unidentified correspondent [M. Dujardin?] for looking after his daughter (Marguerite, born in 1894) after an operation ('She tells me she is transformed since her operation') and asks him to contact a laryngologist for her; he is hard at work in Nice ('Je suis ici en plein travail et ne sais quand je retournerai'), but will come back to Paris if necessary. On 2 April 1935, Matisse writes to the painter August Bréal that his news of the struggles of their friend Martel [presumably the painter Paul Martel] saddens him, 'all the more because I can do absolutely nothing at the moment to help him'; Matisse reports that his wife Amélie is bedridden with 'un rhumatisme lombaire', and he himself has been 'struggling seriously for three years. My equilibrium has been broken by a major piece of decorative work that has also lasted three years. Intermittently I am strong enough to endure the anxieties of this profession'. A letter of 17 April 1939 discusses the evaluation of his properties in Nice and refers to sending 'Madame Matisse's pension'. To the Hungarian painter Vilmos Perlrott-Csaba on 3 April 1950, Matisse writes 'I remember our meeting at the Prado Museum and seeing you copying a large [El] Gréco placed on the right hand side of the room', and he proposes meeting later in the year in Paris or Nice.