These lithographs were begun in 1950, almost at the end of the artist's life, and are from the only edition of lithographs of the cut-outs produced directly by Matisse working with Mourlot. The images reproduce his iconic pochoir designs and were incorporated into a volume of the French portfolio Verve, ‘Dernieres Oeuvres de Matisse’, also known as Verve 35/36, celebrating his last works and published posthumously by Teriade in Paris in 1958.

In 1953 Matisse received a commission to design a ceramic tile mural for an enclosed patio at the home of Frances Lasker Brody, a noted patron of the arts based in Los Angeles. With no specifications in writing, nor any idea of the size of the space, he produced three monumental cut-outs to serve as potential maquettes for the commission: Decoration Masques, Decoration Fruits, and Apollon. When Brody visited the artist's studio in May 1953, she rejected all three designs and requested something less symmetrical and classically-influenced. The result was La Gerbe, which was accepted and finally installed in Los Angeles shortly after Matisse died in November 1954.

The work that this lithograph reproduces is the largest of Matisse's cut-outs that remain in France, measuring over four metres tall and eight metres long. It is held by the Musée Matisse in Nice. As in its counterpart Decoration Masques, we see the profound significance that Matisse ascribed to the decorative element in art. This had first grown out of an appreciation for Islamic art, and finds its greatest expression in the almost mathematical arrangements of fruits and flowers that he deployed in these two late cut-outs. Based upon the same quatrefoil units as Decoration Masques, the design also contained several of the same painted faces that came and went until fairly late in the process of composition, with the artist eventually opting to replace them with oranges and lemons. The blue and white form at the right of the image was added to denote the doorway in Brody's patio courtyard.

The lithographs are in stunning condition and are becoming extremely scarce.

Referenced in the Catalogue Raisonne: Duthuit 139. Freitag 6231
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