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Notes

*Title: A lithograph entitled "Nude Reclining" is listed in the 1928 Downtown Gallery catalogue "Ernest Fiene New Lithographs" in an edition of 20. That this print is the one listed in that catalogue has not been ascertained with complete certainty. Most evidence suggests it is, and this catalogue raisonné currently accepts it as such but calls it "Untitled" and uses the descriptive title "Nude Reclining in Front of Window." Should evidence arise to indicate that the Downtown Gallery catalogue "Reclining Nude" is, in fact, a different print, an appropriate change in the catalogue raisonné will be made.

In a list of prints hand-written by the artist and dated June 14, 1958, Fiene specifies a print to which he gives the title "Sleeping Nude." He may be referring to this print.

**Date and annotations: Of three observed impressions, only one has Fiene's conventional annotation pattern for nudes: numbered, l.l. (14/20), and signed and dated, "Ernest Fiene 28," l.r. The other two (4/20 and 19/20), are numbered, l.l., and signed, l.r. but, atypically, undated.

***Printer: Although this print bears a clear relationship to the work of Matisse (See below.), its inclusion in the Downtown Gallery Catalogue "Ernest Fiene New Lithographs" of March and April, 1928, means it was created before he left for Paris in December of that year. In New York his printer was George C. Miller. While in Paris he made lithographs at Atelier Desjobert.

Related works: The nudes of 1928-29 reveal the clear influence of Matisse. (See below and Nudes Gallery.) "Although he [Fiene, while he was in Paris, 1928-29] was befriended by Braque and Derain, it was the work of Matisse that made the most lasting impression on the artist" (Hyman opp. fig. 2)

Henry Matisse, "La Sieste," Lithograph, 1922, Duthuit 427 (Image, Courtesy Swann Galleries, New York City)