Henri Matisse (1869-1954), after - Nu Bleu II - Offset lithograph - 80x60 - SIAE licensed print - 1999

Offset print after Henri Matisse (*)
Reproduction of the work “Nu Bleu II”, created by Matisse in 1952, and belonging to the collection of the Centre National d’Art Georges Pompidou.
Authorized print by the Matisse Estate.
Published by SIAE
Signature on the plate.

Specifications:

- Support dimensions: 60 x 45 cm
- Year: 1999
- Condition: Excellent (this work has never been framed or exhibited, and has always been kept in a professional art folder, thus preserved in perfect condition).

The work will be carefully handled and packaged in a reinforced flat cardboard box. The shipment will be insured with a tracking number.

The shipment will also include full insurance for the final value of the work with full reimbursement in case of loss or damage, at no cost to the buyer.

(*) Henri Matisse was born in 1869 in Cateau-Cambresis (France). Like Pierre Bonnard, Matisse studied Law. He began painting in 1890 and attended classes at the Académie Julian (1891-1892). He enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1892 and joined Gustave Moreau’s studio. The landscapes and still lifes he painted in that period are of a classical style while giving primary importance to color. His first solo exhibition took place in 1904.
The previous year Matisse had co-founded the Salon d’Automne and was an integral part of the group “La cage aux fauves” in 1905. Matisse is the one who truly headed the Fauvism movement which caused such a scandal; the artist applies vivid, flat colors on the canvas that translate the intensity of his emotions, simplifies forms and contours them with a black stroke. Travels to sunny countries (Corsica, the south of France, Algeria, Spain, Tahiti…) confirm his tendency to privilege color. Matisse painted landscapes, portraits, still lifes.
In 1907, the artist opened a painting school, the Académie Matisse, in his own Paris studio. He published in 1910 “Notes of a Painter” in which he states: “what I pursue above all is expression.” The arabesque is among the motifs of this expression around 1910. He painted interiors, studios, nudes. His free treatment of color and form provoked scandal at the Armory Show in which he participated in 1913.
After World War I, Matisse devoted himself to the depiction of female figures, odalisques posing for him in settings of iridescent colors, with arabesque and floral motifs.
Matisse settled in Nice in 1921, where he would remain for the rest of his life. Matisse drew series, engraved, illustrated, created frescoes, designed theater sets and costumes, bust models and female nudes, painted, and entered a new phase of experimentation from 1947: cut and paste papers elevated with gouache painting; the artist’s work became more abstract. Matisse created the album “Jazz” in 1947 and another series of “Interiors” following the same scheme.
Matisse died in Nice in 1954.