The drawing is a portrait of Nadia Sednaoui, photo shown below. Nadia was introduced to Matisse by his son-in-law, Georges Duthuit, who on seeing Nadia thought that she would be a interesting model for Matisse. Matisse generated several works of Nadia, some in ink, some in charcoal, some etchings and other media, but all were monochromatic works. She posed for Matisse during the summer of 1948, exclusively in Paris. In most of the works, neither she or her mother could detect her likeness, something that pleased Matisse. He was drawing something else.