Thirty-four sketches and an introduction by Norbert Wolf printed in a 64-page format make up this hardbound volume of the Prestel's "Erotic Sketchbook" series. The brief text introduction is only five pages in length and printed in English with another five pages devoted to the German translation. Despite it's brevity, the text is excellent and includes many quotes from Matisse about his art including the following: "I paint odalisques (female slaves or concubines in a harem) in order to paint the nude. Otherwise, how is the nude to be painted without being artificial? But also I saw they exist. I was in Morocco. I saw them."
Frankly I was somewhat disappointed in this book but not because the work wasn't up to par. I was simply expecting to see some erotic works that I was not already familiar with. Unfortunately for me, I was already aware of all of the thirty-four images included in the book. Since the originals are spread out all over the world, many in private collections, this volume at least gathers the various images together in one place for easy reference. The book is easily worth the cost for the serious Matisse admirer.
Wolf also tips the reader off to another book by Lydia Delektorskaja, who was Matisse's assistant and model for four years (1934-39). One of his paintings of her recently sold for $2.2 million dollars. Unfortunately, the only copy currently available of his model's 360 plus page story is rather expensive and the text is in French. Like many people I'll be looking for an English Edition of the book.