FINE ANTIQUE PRINTS

Towards the end of his monumental career as a painter, sculptor and lithographer, an elderly and sick Henri Emil Benoit Matisse (1860-1954) was unable to stand and use a paintbrush for a long period of time and so developed the technique of ‘carving into color’ creating bold bright paper cutouts. These lithographs were included in the Verve Revue Artistique et Litteraire (“The Last Works of Matisse”,) Volume IX No. 35-36, printed in Paris in 1958. Matisse had specially composed the cover of this volume and under this direction, the first of these plates were printed in 1954 and remainder completed in 1958 by Mourlot Brothers. These lithographs were produced at the end of the artist’s life and are the only edition of lithography produced under Matisse’s supervision.

Matisse considered his “Sorrow of the King” originally created in 1952 to the “equal of any of my paintings” he wrote to Jean Cassou, then head of the Musee National d’Art Modern in Paris. This view of an elderly king surrounded by those things he loved (music and dancing and leaves representing the passing of time) is purported to be a portrait of the elderly Matisse.

Edition size: 1000 copies each edition for a total of 2000 both editions 1954 and 1958 on wove paper.
Printed signature and/or date on some of the lithographs.
Reference: Duthuit No. 139, “Catalogue Raisonné Des Ouvrages Illustrés”

Print size 14 x 20 ¾ inches sheet, 19 x 26 inches framed size.
Excellent original condition.