Buste de femme avec collier et bracelet
- Gallery: Room 2
- Maker: Henri Matisse
- Date: 1926
- Object type: print
- Materials: paper
- Museum number: 2004,0602.111
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
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About this object
Before you is "Buste de Femme avec Collier et Bracelet" by Henri Matisse. Created in 1926, this etching captures the upper body of a young woman as she appears to undress. Her left hand reaches up to her head, adorned with a bracelet while her right gestures gently toward a necklace. The piece is strikingly minimal yet expressive, using a single bold line to suggest form and motion.
Matisse worked with the French model Henriette Darricarrère for several years. She appears in many of his compositions from this period, lending a familiar, almost personal quality to his work.
This is one of five trial proofs—printed separately from the small edition of fifteen. Matisse inscribed the impression with the word “Essai,” French for “trial,” signifying this was part of his careful experimental process.
The print appears on greyish chine collé paper, mounted for extra effect. A subtle contrast emerges between the figure and the textured paper. Matisse’s focus here is not realism, but emotion and rhythm—qualities that still draw the eye and inspire the imagination today.
See it in person
Buste de femme avec collier et bracelet is on display in Room 2 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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