Henri Matisse

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.

This piece is based upon the original cut-out of the same title, which is held in the collection of the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland. The collectors Hildy and Ernst Beyeler acquired the cut-out directly from Matisse’s daughter Marguerite in 1960. It measures an extraordinary 312 x 352cm.

Matisse had long been fascinated with the wide green leaves of the acanthus plant. On a sojourn to Morocco in 1912, he was delighted to find the nation’s landscapes “just as they had been described in the paintings of Delacroix and in Pierre Loti's novels”. Acanthus plants feature prominently in two canvases he executed that year in the grounds of the Villa Brooks near his hotel; one of the paintings is simply titled “Acanthes”.

The original cut-out was initially pinned to the walls in Matisse’s studio. Confined to bed by ill health, he cut out the shapes himself and then instructed his studio assistants where to place each piece of paper in the composition. We know from the number of pinholes in the blue shapes that they were the first to be laid down, and that the rest of Acanthes developed in response to these forms.

The distinctive shape of the plant’s leaves and flowers are reduced in this lithograph to their most simple and radiant forms.

The lithographs from this portfolio are in stunning condition and are becoming extremely scarce.

Referenced in the Catalogue Raisonne: Duthuit 139; Freitag 6231.

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