Essay by Gayln Landem, Class of 2007 and Catherine Carter Goebel, Editor

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) was a prominent Parisian art critic and writer of the early twentieth century. He and modern artist, Henri Matisse, had a mutually beneficial professional relationship. Although they worked in different fields, the two often influenced each other. Together they helped to define major aspects of modern art. Matisse's portrait, Apollinaire VI (1952), survives as testimony to the abiding sympathetic response to modernism that they shared.

Upon their meeting, Apollinaire interviewed Matisse for an article which he published in 1907 in La Phalange, concluding that: "We are not in the presence of some extremist venture; the distinctive feature of Matisse's art is its reasonableness" (Benjamin 130). Apollinaire also indicated his frustration with the public for not accepting and supporting Matisse. From this point on, the two maintained a warm friendship, commenting positively about each other's work until the outbreak of World War I when Apollinaire volunteered for the French National Army. While in action, he was hit in the head with a large piece of shrapnel and dismissed, returning home and dying soon after.

Although Apollinaire died in 1918, Matisse later sketched this lithographic portrait in 1952 in memory of his departed friend. When André Rouveyre wrote his book entitled Apollinaire, he asked Matisse to do several illustrations of the close friend they had in common. This piece is one of the six that Matisse ultimately drew for this production, entitled the Apollinaire Suite. Each is different. Matisse began with near abstraction and ended in this version with a more complete view. The resulting lithographs were printed in an edition of approximately three hundred.

This piece is striking in its bold linear conception. It combines several thin black lines on a white background. It truly shows the ability of the painter to reduce character and mass to the simplest of forms. This work may not be one of his most famous, but the simplicity of its drawing reveals the true talent of Matisse. In contrast to the struggle and time an artist would normally put into an average oil painting, black and white lithographic sketches may have been a great release for Matisse. The depth and character achieved through his masterful and spare use of line and contour allowed him to further refine his drawing skills.