Matisse was famed for his sketches; in them, he rejected academic drawing techniques to project, in simple line drawings, the feelings that welled up within him when he stood before his model. Here his model is Jacquy, his granddaughter Jacqueline Matisse Monnier (b. 1931). He drew the charming face of his beloved granddaughter in a few simple, forceful strokes. This work is one of a series of portraits of Jacquy that Matisse drew in thick black lines. A photograph exists of Matisse relaxing in his atelier, with these portraits up on the walls.