As a dedicated printmaker throughout his career, Matisse’s etchings often hold a deep yet subtle sense of intimacy, as demonstrated in Jeune femme à la chevelure encadrant le visage (Young Woman with Hair Framing Her Face). The young women visage emerging from the paper in delicate lines is the face of the artist’s famous model Nadia. Matisse dedicates the etching to her in French: “to Nadia Sednaoui affectionately 30/10 51.” His son-in-law Georges Duthuit introduced the two, and she quickly became his artistic muse; they spent the summer of 1948 together and developed a close rapport despite their sixty-year age difference. His graceful rendering of her image reflects the affection one feels for a those they know best, able to capture her essence in only a handful of strokes.
This intimacy of the image is further enhanced by Matisse’s use of the soft ground etching process, in which the printer applies a layer of grease that keeps the surface soft and sticky and thus more sensitive to pressure. As such, it is often used to replicate the texture and qualities of a pencil mark. Tied to his hand and the act of drawing, pressing down onto the etching surface, the process connects Matisse physically to the work. Through his soft ground etching, Jeune femme à la chevelure encadrant le visage (Young Woman with Hair Framing Her Face) also bares a feeling of immediacy, as if the artist has just opened his sketchbook and quickly sketched the face of his muse, distilling Nadia to her purest form through his exceptional line work.
