Matisse kept a sketchbook of drawings which were the preliminary sketches for the blue nude types. The drawings from this important carnet are now dispersed, but a facsimile edition was issued by Galerie Huguette Beres and Berggruen et Cie, Paris in 1955. The order of Matisse's drawings in this sketch book appears to be chronological and allows one to follow his first thoughts and elaborations of the blue nude theme. For example, the first drawing shows a seated female nude with her right arm extended, a pose unique in the sketch book but the very one with which Matisse apparently began Nu bleu IV. The second sketch book drawing, however, poses the nude with the bent right arm, which Matisse retained not only for the rest of the blue nude drawings in the carnet but for the four cutouts, themselves. The photograph of the early state indicates the many changes Matisse made in this cutout, changes made with both charcoal and cut paper which remain visible in the final work and give it a labored appearance found only in a few other cutouts. Matisse's assistant has recalled that Nu bleu IV demanded so many adjustments that it occupied Matisse for some two weeks