Le Rêve (Matisse)
painting by Henri Matisse (1935)
Le Rêve (English: The Dream) is a painting created by the French artist Henri Matisse in May 1935.
This oil on canvas depicts a woman in the nude who is shown dreaming. It is held in the collection of the Musée national d'Art moderne in Paris. Another painting by Matisse with the same title was created a few years later in 1940.
History
The painting dates from 1935. In that year, Lydia Delectorskaya began posing daily as a nude model for Matisse, and this painting portrays her in one of her familiar poses.
Another painting titled Le Rêve (1940)
Another painting by Matisse, created a few years later in 1940, also bears the title Le Rêve. It was painted in Nice shortly after the beginning of World War II. In a letter to his son Pierre, Matisse described the painting's evolution: "this painting began very realistically, depicting, sleep amidst fruits on my marble table, a beautiful brunette, who became an angel sleeping on a violet surface."
It has been presented in several exhibitions, including the 2012 Pompidou exhibition Matisse: Pairs and Series, and earlier at the Galerie Maeght from 7–29 December 1945.
In this later painting, the dreaming young woman is no longer nude but wears a garment whose motifs recall those of The Romanian Blouse, also painted in 1940.
Its overall tone is more somber than that of The Romanian Blouse.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Le Rêve (Matisse)” as painting by Henri Matisse (1935). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as painting by Henri Matisse (1935). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q61693055. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1935, 1940, 2012 and 1945.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Le Rêve (Matisse)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Le Rêve (Matisse) primary sources, Le Rêve (Matisse) archive and Rêve research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Le Rêve (Matisse)”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Le Rêve (Matisse)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.