Yvonne Landsberg

Yvonne Landsberg is a key drawing created by the French modernist master Henri Matisse in 1914. Executed on the eve of the First World War, this work captures a moment of crucial transition in the artist’s style, moving away from the vibrant color planes of Fauvism toward a more rigorous, linear abstraction.

Matisse employed pencil on tracing paper, a medium that allowed him to explore the sitter's form with sharp, economical precision. The choice of tracing paper emphasizes the preliminary, structural nature of the study, though the drawing functions powerfully as a complete artwork. The composition focuses intensely on the sitter, Yvonne Landsberg, defining her figure through contour rather than modeling or heavy shadow. This high degree of abstraction and elongation in the rendering of the human figure is characteristic of the austerity and searching formal experimentation that defined Matisse’s output during this critical 1914 period.

The work is an exceptional example of French draftsmanship from the early modernist era, emphasizing the artist's foundational belief in drawing as the primary discipline of painting. Matisse sought to reduce the subject to its essential structural lines, maintaining figuration while pushing the boundaries of representation.

This drawing is a central holding in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. The significance of works like Yvonne Landsberg to the history of modern art ensures that high-quality prints and references are widely available for study. The continual academic focus on this piece confirms its standing among the most important drawings created by Matisse.