Henri Matisse spent his career exploring new possibilities for artistic expression and establishing forms that convey the energy and sensation of their subjects. This spirit of experimentation is boldly demonstrated in the five Jeannette sculptures in Glenstone’s collection, a grouping of increasingly abstract portraits of the model Jeanne Vaderin. Jeannette I and Jeannette II, both from 1910, are naturalistic renderings with clearly defined and realistic features. The bust of Jeannette III, 1911, created from memory, captures individual expression through formal innovation. Jeannette IV, 1911, and Jeannette V, 1913, are progressively more daring in approach. Matisse’s own process of creative boundary breaking—arguably inflected by Cubist fragmentation and an interest in African masks—and the revolutionary drive toward abstraction constitute one of Modernism’s most enduring legacies.
–From the Glenstone Field Guide