Thomas Hart Benton

The Hymn Singer

1950

"Mlle Landsberg" (grade planche, pl. 16), 1914 Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954) Signed and Numbered Lower Right Edition 12/15 Image size: 7 7/8 x 4 5/16 inches Sheet size: 17 11/16 x 12 1/2 inches With frame: 19 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches Henri Matisse came from a family who were of Flemish origin and lived near the Belgian border. At eight o'clock on the evening of December 31, 1869, he was born in his grandparents' home in the town of Le Cateau in the cheerless far north of France. His father was a self-made seed merchant who was a mixture of determination and tightly coiled tension. Henri had no clear idea of what he wanted to do with his life. He was a twenty-year-old law clerk convalescing from appendicitis when he first began to paint, using a box of colors given to him by his mother. Little more than a year later, in 1890, he had abandoned law and was studying art in Paris. The classes consisted of drawing from plaster casts and nude models and of copying paintings in the Louvre. He soon rebelled against the school's conservative atmosphere; he replaced the dark tones of his earliest works with brighter colors that reflected his awareness of Impressionism. Matisse was also a violinist; he took an odd pride in the notion that if his painting eye failed, he could support his family by fiddling on the streets of Paris. Henri found a girlfriend while studying art, and he fathered a daughter, Marguerite, by her in 1894. In 1898 he married another woman, Amelie Parayre. She adopted the beloved Marguerite; they eventually had two sons, Jean, a sculptor and Pierre who became an eminent art dealer. Relations between Matisse and his wife were often strained. He often dallied with other women, and they finally separated in 1939 over a model who had been hired as a companion for Mme. Matisse. She was Madame Lydia, and after Mme. Matisse left, she remained with Matisse until he died. Matisse spent the summer of 1905 working with Andre Derain in the small Mediterranean seaport of Collioure. They began using bright and dissonant colors. When they and their colleagues exhibited together, they caused a sensation. The critics and the public considered their paintings to be so crude and so roughly crafted that the group became known as Les Fauves (the wild beasts). By 1907, Matisse moved on from the concerns of Fauvism and turned his attention to studies of the human figure. He had begun to sculpt a few years earlier. In 1910, when he saw an exhibition of Islamic art, he was fascinated with the multiple patterned areas and adapted the decorative universe of the miniatures to his interiors. As a continuation of his interest in the "exotic", Matisse made extended trips to Morocco in 1912 and 1913. At the end of 1917, Matisse moved to Nice; he would spend part of each year there for the remainder of his life. A meticulous dandy, he wore a light tweed jacket amd a tie when he painted. He never used a palette, but instead squeezed his colors on to plain white kitchen dishes...

Lithograph with original hand color. Sheet size: 18.5 x 13.25 inches. Framed Size: 24 x 20 3/8 inches Date : c. 1836-44 Mckenney and Hall's hand colored lithographs remain some of...

MOA-NA-HON-GA. GREAT WALKER. AN IOWAY CHIEF., from History of the Indian Tribes of North America Artist:Charles Bird King Publisher:McKenney and Hall hand-colored engraving on paper ...

After Norman Rockwell Reproduction print of "Barbershop Quartet" 1936 Lithograph Signed in Pencil Lower Right Numbered Lower Left 182/200 This i...

Original WW1 poster: "Be Patriotic sign your country's pledge to save the food." U. S. Food Administration. Miss Liberty calls with outstretch...

Original vintage poster: Help the Greatest Mother in the World, The War Chest. Archivally linen backed. Very clean. Artist: Alonzo Earl Foringer. Lithograph, circa 1917-1918. Excellent condition. Note that this image was printed also with a red cross on it as a variation. Loosely based on Michelangelo's "Pieta," the image in this poster depicts a monumental Red Cross nurse...

Original World War 1 poster: Uncle Sam Needs That Extra Shovelful (of Coal.) If you like the Uncle Sam image, this is a good one to have. Help Unc...

History Of The Indian Tribes Of North America, With Biographical Sketches And Anecdotes Of The Principal Chiefs. Embellished With One Hundred And Twenty Portraits, From The Indian Gallery...