Pen and black ink on cream wove paper, 1942. 525x405 mm; 20 3/4x16 inches. Signed and dated "12/42" in pen and black ink, lower left recto. Ex-collection Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, with the original receipt and printed label; private collection, Connecticut; thence to the current owner.
Accompanied by a photograph certificate of authenticity from Wanda de Guébriant, Archives Matisse, Paris, dated January 24, 2005, with the regsitration number H 132.
Monique Bourgeois was a 21 year old nursing student when she was hired by Matisse (then 72 years old) in 1941 to help him following surgery for intestinal cancer. She posed for the artist throughout the early 1940s, serving as the model for Monique in Gray Robe among other important oils from this period. In 1946, she took her vows as a Dominican nun, becoming Sister Jacques-Marie. Through her persistence and friendship with the artist, Monique was the catalyst in getting Matisse to design the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence (1947-51), considered among Matisse's most important works and the greatest religious commission of the 20th century.
