Portrait of a Man by Henri Matisse

from 'Charles d'Orleans Portfolio'

1950

D. 28

16" x 10 3/8"

Lithograph in color on Arches paper. Signed in stone lower right. From the Charles D'Orleans Poems Portfolio. Edited by Teriade in 1950, it included 54 lithographic sheets with text on the back. From the total edition of 1200 examples, signed and numbered on the justification page (30 Roman numbered examples also exist.

Charles D'Orleans was born in 1931 (?) and died in 1465. A French nobleman and poet, his uncle was Charles the 6th and his son was Louis the 12th. He was captured at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, one of many campaigns during the Hundred Years War where English bowman under Henry V defeated the French forces under Charles D'Albert. He spent twenty-five years in captivity, spending most of his life in English prison "or under house arrest".

He lived during the time of Joan of Arc and Chaucer, and the Battle of Agincourt is immortalized in Shakespeare's play Henry V.

Matisse, with this suite, paid homage to the man who redefined "elegiac" or mournful, melancholy poetry (Ovid, the Roman poet did it 1400 years before). His poems are marked by his taste for personal reflection and introspection. He composed short poems, ballads and rondeaux. It is the rondeau of 12 or 15 versus that he is known for - very close by the shape and the subject to the sonnet which will triumph in the following century, by William Shakespear.

Legen has it that Charles D'Orleans was the first person to give a Valentine's card.

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