Henri Matisse
BLUE NUDE II, 1952
Serigraph
30 x 22 ins 76.2 x 55.88 cm
Available at VFA
A current exhibit at The Grand Palais in Pairs focuses on the magnificent works that Henri Matisse (1869-1954) did in the final years of his life.
In 1941, at the age of 70, Matisse was diagnosed with abdominal cancer. He underwent surgery that made it difficult for him to walk.
Matisse worked with assistants who painted paper with bold colors in gouache. He would take the painted sheets and cut then into shapes, which he used to create stunning compositions. The simplicity of design that Matisse had mastered throughout his decades-long painting career translated well to his cut-outs.
Matisse not only dealt with health problems during his final years, but the Nazi occupation of France from 1940 to 1944. His son, Pierre, who had emigrated to the United States and had opened an art gallery in New York, begged his father to join him, but Matisse refused. "It seemed to me as if I would be deserting.” Matisse wrote to his son. “If everyone who has any value leaves France, what remains of France?" His daughter, Marguerite, was part of the Resistance during the war. She was tortured by the Nazis and managed to escape from a train bound for a concentration camp in Germany.
Matisse also returned to printmaking late in his life, which he had begun around 1900. He stopped printmaking for a while and, years later, took it up again, and even had a printing press installed in his studio.
It was an aquatint print, Odalisque on the Terrace, done by Matisse in 1922, that was stolen from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation, a private museum in northern Italy on March 22, along with paintings by Renoir and Cézanne.
The exhibition Matisse 1941-1954 at the Grand Palais includes more than 300 drawings, books and cut-outs that Matisse created in the final years of his life. The exhibit will be on view through July 26, 2026.
References:
Eddy Frankel. Matisse, 1941-1954 review – hit after glorious hit in a show of life-enhancing genius. The Guardian. March 20, 2026.
Benjamin Genocchio. Matisse and Printmaking. Incollect. March 9, 2022.
Please contact us if you would like more information about the works of Henri Matisse available at VFA.
