6,669 results for "cubism"

This exquisite lithograph by Joan Miro (1893–1983), titled Le Grand Personnage (The Great Figure), from the folio Derriere le miroir, No. 186, originates from the 1970 edition publis...

"Harlequin" 1965 color lithograph cm 63x46 Bottom left EA and signed lower right in pencil. Il Bisonte publisher, Florence. In frame Provenance Private collection Milan Sphere Gal...

This exquisite lithograph by Fernand Leger (1881–1955), titled Sans titre (Untitled), from the album Cirque, Lithographies Originales (Circus, Original Lithographs), originates from ...

This exquisite lithograph after Andre Derain (1880–1954), titled Port de Collioure (Port of Collioure), from the folio Fauves, VII, Collection Pierre Levy, 1972, originates from the ...

This exquisite lithograph by Paul Klee (1879–1940), titled Sommeil d’hiver (Winter Sleep), from Verve, Revue Artistique et Litteraire, Vol. I, No. 3, originates from the 1938 issue p...

Etching, Engraving, Drypoint on vélin du Lana Papiers Spéciaux pure rag paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition. Notes: From the folio, Du Cubisme, 1947. Published ...

This rare 1950 original poster by Georges Braque for the Galerie Maeght is a striking example of how one of the founders of Cubism translated his painterly language into the medium o...

This colorful lithographic poster was printed in 1982 at the Atelier Mourlot in Paris was printed for an exhibition of Atelier Mourlot prints in Tokyo at Seibu Department Stores, 198...

This cubist black ink pen drawing by André Lhote (1885 - 1962), circa 1910, features a still-life composition, a bowl with fruits on a table with a cubist geometric design. We added ...

Lithograph on vélin paper. Paper Size: 12 x 9 inches. Inscription: Signed in the plate and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the album, View, Surrealism in Belgium, vol. VII, n°2, D...

Provencal Landscape by Louis Bellon (French 1908-1998) From a batch of similar work where most were dated 1942-1947 wax crayon painting on paper, unframed measurements: 12 x 17.5 in...

21240 vintage Berber Boujad Moroccan rug with Bohemian style 05'03 x 09'03. Showcasing a bold expressive design, incredible detail and texture, this hand knotted wool vintage Berber Boujad Moroccan rug is a captivating vision of woven beauty. The geometric pattern and lively colors woven into this Moroccan rug work together creating a truly unique look. The abrashed purple field features a compartment design decorated with ambiguous tribal motifs. Historical richness and full of Ancient Berber symbolism, this vintage Boujad rug...

Lithograph on vélin d'Arches à la forme savoir paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, Dans l'Atelier de Picasso, 1957. Published by Fernan...

Vintage French Scarf after Pablo Picasso Cubist Portrait of "Femme Assise 1980s. This vintage Picasso silk scarf features one of his paintings ...

Paritosh Sen - Lady with the Telephone & Cat Mixed Media on Paper Board 29.25 x 21.25 inches, 2005 (Unframed & Delivered) A stunning work in colors on "red, Blue Gold in Acrylic on ...

'The Mill', watercolour and graphite on paper, adhered on canvas, by Louis Latapie (circa 1930s). A colourful wintery scene, the bare trees are like wireless ...

This exquisite etching by Marc Chagall (1887–1985), titled Tchitchikov douanier (Tchitchikov the Customs Officer), originates from the celebrated folio Nicolas Gogol, Les Ames mortes...

"Raquel" is an interior scene of a young woman, stretched out comfortably on a sofa, surrounded by flowers and fruit. She gazes placidly at the artist, who is portraying her dressed in a nightgown and a colorful dressing gown. Oil on canvas. 2003 Measurements: 90 x 200 cm / 35,43 x 78,74" The rich range of colors used and the relaxed gesture of the model envelop the atmosphere of comfort that prevails in the works of this author because, according to his words: “When I use a model I want her to be very comfortable, rested, calm and relaxed. I am not interested in movement in my work, as it always ends up too artificial for my taste and would interfere with the ambiance I am trying to create”. The flattened perspectives, the fractured surfaces, and the graphic stylizations refer to the cubism of Picasso and Juan Gris. There are echoes of Modigliani in the treatment of his female models and we can detect an homage to Gauguin and Matisse, in his playful and sensual manipulation of color. In 2003 Ediciones Sammer publishes in a deluxe edition the book Alfredo Roldán written by the sculptor David Gamella where a large part of his work is reproduced. This painting, Raquel, is reproduced on the cover of the book and also inside on a double page (294-295). ABOUT THE ARTIST Alfredo Roldán (Madrid- Spain, 1965) is a self-taught artist who, at the age of 22, began selling his works at street markets. In 1994 he won the award granted by the City Council of Madrid with the painting “El Baño Azul”, which now hangs in The Museum of Modern Art of Madrid. That year he began to work with the renowned British dealer...

Stunning and vibrant, 30 cm high, vase with sgrafitto and hand-painted colored glossy pattern of houses. On the base is painted Italy and 4641. Fratelli Fanciullacci Pottery: during...

Inspirational This graphite pencil drawing ‘Neo Deco – 05-07-25’ shows Ukrainian model Assia Granatouroff once more. After my last drawing of her I felt inspired to do anoth...

Dick Beer (b. London 1893 - d. Stockholm 1938) A French City, 1919 (Fransk stad) oil on canvas canvas dimensions 82x66 cm frame 94x78.5 cm signed Dick ...

It is known that Jindřich Halabala firmly believed that the furniture he created was to be functional, modular, and flawlessly-crafted, and this rare armchair stands as evidence of t...

This exquisite lithograph by Marc Chagall (1887–1985), titled La Jongleuse (The Juggler), from The Lithographs of Chagall I, originates from the October 1960 issue published by Andre...

Lithograph on vélin d'Arches à la forme savoir paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, Dans l'Atelier de Picasso, 1957. Published by Fernan...

Statimque Tobias visum recepit ("And immediately Tobit revovered his sight") is an artwork realized in 1964. It is part of Biblia Sacra vulgatæ editionis published by Rizzoli-Mediola...

Painting on burlap by Jose Maria de Servin of an Abstract Naive Lion animal using bright colors and geometric patterns. In this piece the artist simplifies the representation of the ...

Le Musicien et son Chien The Musician and his Dog Mixed Media on Canvas In Stock Skepa is a French artist, born in 1978 He graduated at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts...

This exquisite lithograph by Fernand Leger (1881–1955), titled Sans titre (Untitled), from the album Cirque, Lithographies Originales (Circus, Original Lithographs), originates from ...

The paintings of Bruce Rubenstein seamlessly marry sophistication with affordability. His original art merges the creative attitudes of the two distinct art hot spots of New York and...

This exquisite lithograph after Rene Magritte (1898–1967), titled Un Bombardon Libere son Bouquet de Flammes (A Bombardon Releases its Bouquet of Flames), from the folio Les Enfants Trouves de Magritte (The Found Children of Magritte), 1968, originates from the edition published by A.C. Mazo et Cie, Paris, and printed by Mourlot Freres, Paris, on November 20, 1968. The work embodies Magrittes sustained inquiry into semiotics and visual epistemology, translating his characteristic strategies of displacement, symbolic inversion, and conceptual ambiguity into an image that operates as both a poetic metaphor and a philosophical proposition concerning the instability of meaning. Executed as a lithograph on grand velin dArches paper, this work measures 17.5 x 23.5 inches (44.5 x 59.7 cm). Signed in the plate by the artist; hand signed by Fernand Mourlot, Editeur. The edition exemplifies the technical mastery of the Mourlot atelier. Artwork Details: Artist: After Rene Magritte (1898–1967) Title: Un Bombardon Libere son Bouquet de Flammes (A Bombardon Releases its Bouquet of Flames), from the folio Les Enfants Trouves de Magritte (The Found Children of Magritte) Medium: Lithograph on grand velin dArches paper Dimensions: 17.5 x 23.5 inches (44.5 x 59.7 cm) Inscription: Signed in the plate by the artist; hand signed by Fernand Mourlot, Editeur Date: 1968 Publisher: A.C. Mazo et Cie, Paris Printer: Mourlot Freres, Paris Catalogue Raisonne: Magritte, Rene, et al. Rene Magritte: Catalogue Raisonne, Vol. 3. Menil Foundation; Philip Wilson Publishers; Distributed in the USA and Canada by Rizzoli International, 1992, nos. 791–792 and 1056; vol. 5, p. 218, Bibliography entry 68.28. Condition: Well preserved, consistent with age and medium Provenance: From the folio Les Enfants Trouves de Magritte, 1968 Notes: Excerpted from the folio (translated from French), Finished printing in Paris on November 20, 1968, on the presses of Mourlot, for the lithographs. The unpublished text by Louis Scutenaire was composed in Elzevir Casion corps 28 and printed by Fequet et Baudier, typographers. The unpublished compositions numbered from I to IV were specially made by Rene Magritte for this album. The compositions of the Enchanted Domain, are the renderings of the eight paintings of the mural of the Casino de Knokke. They were printed with the benevolent authorization of Mr. Gustave J. Nellens. Justification of the draw, this album was taken from CCCL examples on grand velin dArches numbered from I to CCCL, plus a few examples for collaborators and assistants. About the Publication: Les Enfants Trouves de Magritte (The Found Children of Magritte), published in 1968 by A.C. Mazo et Cie, Paris, represents one of the most significant late life print projects devoted to Rene Magrittes work. Conceived as both a literary and visual tribute, the folio pairs texts by the Belgian writer Louis Scutenaire, Magrittes close friend and fellow Surrealist, with lithographic interpretations produced at the Mourlot atelier, the premier lithographic workshop of twentieth century France. The album includes compositions by Magritte alongside lithographic renderings of the celebrated Enchanted Domain mural from the Casino de Knokke, printed with the authorization of Gustave J. Nellens, who commissioned the original mural. Issued in a single edition of CCCL examples on grand velin dArches, the folio stands as a testament to the collaboration between artist, writer, publisher, and master printer, and remains one of the most culturally important Surrealist print albums of the post war era. About the Artist: Rene Magritte (1898–1967) was a Belgian Surrealist painter whose visionary, intellectual, and poetic imagery redefined twentieth century art and forever changed how the world perceives reality and illusion. Celebrated for his calm precision and thought provoking juxtapositions of ordinary objects in extraordinary contexts, Magritte used painting as a philosophical tool, transforming the everyday into visual paradoxes that challenged the boundaries between what is seen and what is known. Born in Lessines, Belgium, and trained at the Academie Royale des Beaux Arts in Brussels, he absorbed early influences from Cubism, Futurism, and Symbolism before embracing Surrealism, where he found his true voice. In Paris, he became part of the avant garde circle that included Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray—all artists whose radical ideas helped him forge his distinctive synthesis of logic and mystery. Unlike Dalis dream...

Valerie Etitinwo's unique approach to abstract figurative painting celebrates the unconventional beauty found in imperfection and awkwardness. The Nigerian-Swiss artist uses bold col...

Karl Drerup (1904-2000). Italian City, c.1930. Oil on masonite panel, 24 x 32 inches; 34 x 42 in custom frame. Signed lower right. Minor conservation to loss in margins. Price on request Biography: Born in Borghorst, Germany in 1904, Karl Drerup earned a Master’s Degree in graphic arts working under Hans Meid...

Very rare lithograph, signed by Joan Miro. Edition: VII/XV. Framed in museum-quality, archival materials, including a 23K gold moulding. Reference: Miro: Lithographs. Volumes 1-4. ...

This exquisite lithograph by Maurice Utrillo (1883–1955), titled Montmartre, Place Saint-Pierre (Montmartre, Place Saint-Pierre), from the album Paris Capitale (Paris Capital), origi...

30853 New Barbro Nilsson Swedish Inspired Kilim Rug, 10'03 x 13'08. Emanating Scandinavian Modern style with incredible detail and texture, this handwoven Swedish style kilim rug is ...

This exquisite heliogravure after Pierre Soulages (1919–2022), titled Planche No. 4 (Plate No. 4), from the folio Pierre Soulages, Peintres d'aujourd'hui (Pierre Soulages, Painters o...

Thelma Frazier Winter (American, 1903-1977) Woman and Child, c. 1935 Glazed stoneware, painted plaster 14 x 7 x 5.875 inches Thelma Frazier Wint...

Barber Schaumann is a contemporary artist known for her vibrant, abstract interpretations of the female form. Her work combines bold colors with modern, geometric shapes, blending el...

Pointillist Reclining Male Nude by Louis Bellon (French 1908-1998) initialled lower right gouache painting on paper, unframed measurements: 5.5 x 10 inches (overall the sheet measures 8.25 x 11.9 inches) provenance: private collection of the artists work, Provence, France Condition report: very good, colour strong, thin paper, margins of sheet show light marks but image is clean Beautiful Neo-Impressionist 1940's French pointillist...

A vibrant 1950s Modern watercolor of a standing male bather in red & orange tones by notable French artist Andre Delfau. Painted in the south of France along the Cote d' azure (...

This exquisite lithograph by Joan Miro (1893–1983), titled Oiseau devant le solei (Bird Before the Sun), originates from the April 1961 folio Derriere le Miroir, No. 125-126, published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, under the direction of Aime Maeght, and printed by Imprimerie Arte, Paris, 1961. The composition exemplifies Miro’s poetic use of symbolic imagery, where the bird and sun function as elemental forces within his visual language. Through gestural line, saturated color, and spatial freedom, the work reflects Miro’s fusion of cosmic imagery, instinctive mark making, and lyrical abstraction. Executed on velin paper, this lithograph measures 33 x 15 inches (83.82 x 38.1 cm), with bifold, as issued. Unsigned and unnumbered as issued. The edition reflects the refined technical standards and craftsmanship of Imprimerie Arte, Paris. Artwork Details: Artist: Joan Miro (1893–1983) Title: Oiseau devant le solei (Bird Before the Sun), from Derriere le Miroir, No. 125-126, April 1961 Medium: Lithograph on velin paper Dimensions: 33 x 15 inches (83.82 x 38.1 cm), with bifold, as issued Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered as issued Date: 1961 Publisher: Maeght Editeur, Paris Printer: Imprimerie Arte, Paris Catalogue raisonne reference: Miro, Joan, et al. Joan Miro Lithographe. Maeght, 1972–1992, illustration 1722 Condition: Well preserved, consistent with age and medium Provenance: From the April 1961 folio Derriere le Miroir, No. 125-126, published by Maeght Editeur, Paris About the Publication: Derriere le Miroir (translated as "Behind the Mirror") was an iconic French art periodical published from 1946 to 1982 by Maeght Editeur, one of the most influential art publishers of the twentieth century. Founded by Aime Maeght in Paris, the publication was conceived as a visual and literary collaboration between leading modern artists, poets, and critics. Each issue functioned as both an exhibition catalogue and an autonomous work of art, featuring original lithographs printed directly from the artists stones or plates alongside essays, poems, and critical texts. Over more than three decades, Derriere le Miroir produced over 250 issues and presented an extraordinary range of artists including Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Georges Braque, Alexander Calder, Fernand Leger, Pierre Bonnard, Alberto Giacometti, Eduardo Chillida, Ellsworth Kelly, Francis Bacon, Antoni Tapies, Pierre Alechinsky, Pol Bury, Bram van Velde, and many others. Printed by master ateliers such as Mourlot and Arte, the series established new standards of excellence in modern lithography and graphic design. Closely linked to exhibitions at Galerie Maeght, each issue served as a lasting document of postwar modernism, uniting image, text, and philosophy into a uniquely influential publication that remains among the most important and collectible achievements in twentieth century art publishing. About the Artist: Joan Miro (1893–1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor, printmaker, and ceramicist whose visionary imagination and lyrical abstraction made him one of the most influential and beloved artists of the twentieth century. Born in Barcelona, Miro drew inspiration from Catalan folk art, Romanesque frescoes, and the luminous landscapes of Mont-roig del Camp, developing a deep connection to nature that infused his work with vitality and symbolism. After formal training at the Escola d'Art in Barcelona, he absorbed the lessons of Post-Impressionism and Cubism before moving to Paris in the early 1920s, where he became a leading figure in the Surrealist movement. There, Miro forged a personal visual language of biomorphic shapes, floating symbols, and radiant color harmonies that reflected both spontaneity and spiritual depth. In creative dialogue with peers such as Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray, he helped revolutionize modern art by dissolving the boundaries between abstraction and dream imagery. Miro's inventive approach extended far beyond painting, embracing sculpture, ceramics, and monumental public commissions that redefined how art could interact with space and emotion. His expressive freedom and gestural abstraction profoundly influenced later artists including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet, Antoni Tapies, and Joan Mitchell, inspiring generations who sought to merge instinct, color, and imagination. Today, Miro's work remains a cornerstone of modernism, prized by collectors and celebrated in major museums worldwide. His highest auction record was achieved by Peinture (Etoile Bleue) (1927), which sold for approximately 37 million USD at Sothebys, London, on June 19, 2012. Joan Miro Oiseau...

After Marc Chagall Color Cliché Editions du Chêne 1947 Framed Enter the enchanting world of Marc Chagall with this beautifully crafted color cliché, published by Editions du Chê...

A lithograph from the Marina Picasso Estate Collection after the Pablo Picasso painting "Portrait de Face sur Fond Rose et Vert". The original painting was completed in 1917. In the...

This exquisite lithograph and pochoir by Marie Laurencin (1883–1956), titled Sans titre (Untitled), from the album Les Biches (The Does), originates from the 1924 edition published b...

after Henri Matisse - Acrobat Edition of 200 with the printed signature, as issued 80 x 60 cm Posthumous edition after the original paper cut-out with stamp of the Succession Matisse References : Artvalue - Succession Matisse MATISSE'S BIOGRAPHY YOUTH AND EARLY EDUCATION Henri Emile Benoît Matisse was born in a tiny, tumbledown weaver's cottage on the rue du Chêne Arnaud in the textile town of Le Cateau-Cambrésis at eight o'clock in the evening on the last night of the year, 31 December 1869 (Le Cateau-Cambrésis is in the extreme north of France near the Belgian border). The house had two rooms, a beaten earth floor and a leaky roof. Matisse said long afterwards that rain fell through a hole above the bed in which he was born. Matisse’s ancestors had lived in the area for centuries before the convulsive social and industrial upheavals of the nineteenth century. Matisse grew up in a world that was still detaching itself from a way of life in some ways unchanged since Roman times. The coming of the railway had put Bohain on the industrial map, but people still traveled everywhere on foot or horseback. Matisse’s father, Émile Hippolyte Matisse, was a grain merchant whose family were weavers. His mother, Anna Heloise Gerard, was a daughter of a long line of well-to-do tanners. Warmhearted, outgoing, capable and energetic, she was small and sturdily built with the fashionable figure of the period: full breasts and hips, narrow waist, neat ankles and elegant small feet. She had fair skin, broad cheekbones and a wide smile. "My mother had a face with generous features," said her son Henri, who always spoke of her with particular tenderness of the sensitivity. Throughout the forty years of her marriage, she provided unwavering, rocklike support to her husband and her sons. Matisse later said: "My mother loved everything I did." He grew up in nearby Bohain-en-Vermandois, an industrial textile center, until the age of ten, when his father sent him to St. Quentin for lycée. Anna Heloise worked hard. She ran the section of her husband's shop that sold housepaints, making up the customers' orders and advising on color schemes. The colors evidently left a lasting impression on Henri. The artist himself later said he got his color sense from his mother, who was herself an accomplished painter on porcelain, a fashionable art form at the time. Henri was the couple’s first son. The young Matisse was an awkward youth who seemed ill-adapted to the rigors of the North; in particular, he hated the gelid winters. He was a pensive child and by his own account he was a dreamy, frail and not outstandingly bright. In later life he never lost his feeling for his native soil, for seeds and growing things he had encountered in his youth. The fancy pigeons he kept in Nice more than half a century after he left home recalled the weavers' pigeon-lofts tucked away behind even the humblest house in Bohain. Matisse's childhood memories were of a stern upbringing. "Be quick!" "Look out!" "Run along!" "Get cracking!" were the refrains that rang in his ears as a boy. In later years when survival itself depended on habits of thrift and self-denial, the artist prided himself on being a man of the North. When Matisse in turn had children of his own to bring up, he chided himself for any lapse in discipline or open display of tenderness as weakness on his part. In 1887 he went to Paris to study law, working as a court administrator in Le Cateau-Cambrésis after gaining his qualification. Although he considered law as tedious, he nonetheless passed the bar in 1888 with distinction and began his practice begrudgingly. Once Matisse finished school, his father, a much more practical man, arranged for his son to obtain a clerking position at a law office. PAINTING: BEGINNINGS Matisse’s discovery of his true profession came about in an unusual manner. Following an attack of appendicitis, he began to paint in 1889, when his mother had brought him art supplies during the period of convalescence. He said later, “From the moment I held the box of colors in my hands, I knew this was my life. I threw myself into it like a beast that plunges towards the thing it loves.” Matisse’s mother was the first to advise her son not to adhere to the “rules” of art, but rather listen to his own emotions. Matisse was so committed to his art that he later extended a warning to his fiancée, Amélie Parayre, whom he later married: “I love you dearly, mademoiselle; but I shall always love painting more.” Matisse had discovered "a kind of paradise" as he later described it. His drastic change of profession deeply disappointed his father. Two years later in 1891 Matisse returned to Paris to study art at the Académie Julian and became a student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau. After a discouraging year at the Académie Julian, he left in disgust at the overly perfectionist style of teaching there. Afterwards he trained with Gustave Moreau, an artist who nurtured more progressive leanings. In both studios, as was usual, students drew endless figure studies from life. From Bouguereau, he learned the fundamental lessons of classical painting. His one art-schooled technical standby, almost a fetish, was the plumb line. No matter how odd the angles in any Matisse, the verticals are usually dead true. Moreau was a painter who despised the "art du salon", so Matisse was destined, in a certain sense, to remain an "outcast" of the art world. He initially failed his drawing exam for admission to the École des Beaux-Arts, but persisted and was finally accepted. Matisse began painting still-lives and landscapes in the traditional Flemish style, at which he achieved reasonable proficiency. Most of his early works employ a dark palette and tend to be gloomy. Chardin was one of Matisse's most admired painters having made four the French still-life master paintings in the Louvre. Although he executed numerous copies after the old masters he also studied contemporary art. His first experimentations earned him a reputation as the rebellious member of his studio classes. In 1896, Matisse was elected as an associate member of the Société Nationale, which meant that each year he could show paintings at the Salon de la Société without having to submit them for review. In the same year he exhibited 5 paintings in the salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and the state bought two of his paintings. This was the first and almost only recognition he received in his native country during his lifetime. In 1897 and 1898, he visited the painter John Peter Russell on the island Belle Île off the coast of Brittany. Russell introduced him to Impressionism and to the work of Van Gogh who had been a good friend of Russell but was completely unknown at the time. Matisse's style changed completely, and he would later say "Russell was my teacher, and Russell explained color theory to me." Matisse also observed Russell's and other artists' stable marriages. This probably influenced him to find in Amélie Noellie Parayre, his future wife, his anchor. The Dinner Table (1897) was Matisse’s first masterpiece, and he had spent the entire winter working on the oeuvre. Though the Salon displayed the piece, they hung the work in a poor location, disgusted by what they considered its radical, Impressionist aspects. Caroline Joblaud was Matisse's early lover for four years during his initial struggles to affirm his artistic direction and professional career. Caroline (also called Camille) gave Matisse his first daughter Marguerite in 1894, who after Matisse's marriage to Amélie Noellie Parayre was warmly accepted contrary to conventional hostility such arrangements provoked. Caroline posed various times for the artist’s compositions while Marguerite served many times as a model for Matisse throughout his life. MARRIAGE WITH AMÉLIE NOELLIE PARAYRE The Matisses of Bohain and the Parayres of Beauzelle had outwardly nothing in common, and there was no reason why Matisse and Amélie should ever have met. But in October 1897 Matisse went to a wedding in Paris and happened to sit next to her at the uproarious banquet that followed. There had been no banal flirtation between them, even when the wine flowed, each recognized the other as true metal, and when they got up from the table she held out her hand to Henri Matisse in a way that he never forgot. Matisse at that time was not yet the professorial figure of legend. He was known as a prankster, as a ribald and anti-clerical songster, and as someone who had once broken up a café concert performance just for the hell of it. Amélie's relatives operated at that time within a social, intellectual, and political context of which Matisse had had no previous experience. They stood for free thinking, for the separation of church and state, and for the secularization of the French educational system. Her family, better off that that of Matisse, provided the support he needed for the budding artist. When Matisse married Amélie in January 1898, they had been introduced only three months after. Amélie's Aunt Noélie and two of her brothers ran a successful women's shop called the Grande Maison des Modes. Before her marriage, Amélie had shown a gift for designing, making, and modeling hats for a fashionable clientele. In June 1899, she found a partner and opened a shop of her own on the rue de Châteaudun. This allowed Henri and herself to live, with Marguerite, in a tiny two-room apartment on the same street. Madame Matisse, fervently loyal, would play a fundamental role in the life and career of the artist for more than 40 years. Marguerite was to become her father's lifetime mainstay In 1902 disaster struck. Amélie’s parents were disgraced and financially ruined in a spectacular scandal of national scope, as the unsuspecting employees of a woman whose financial empire was based on fraud. Thanks to his early years in a lawyer's office, Matisse was able to busy himself to great effect in the organization of his father-in-law's defense. When all about him lost their heads, burst into tears, and felt more than sorry for themselves, Henri Matisse dealt with their problems one by one. The ordeal had taken its toll, in more than one way. His doctors ordered Matisse to go to Bohain and take two months' complete rest. Amélie had lost both her hat shop and the apartment on the rue de Châteaudun. For the first time, Henri, Amélie and the three children were united in Bohain, having nowhere else to go. Hillary Spurling, one of Matisse’s biographers, asserts that Amélie’s memories of that public disgrace nurtured a “suspicion of the outside world” that would always mark the Matisse family. The Matisse family formed a kind of hermetic unit which revolved around the artist’s work and profession. They fitted their activities according his breaks and work sessions. Silence was essential. Even during the years when Matisse lived mostly alone in Nice, an annual ritual of unpacking, stretching, framing and hanging ended with the whole family settling down to respond to the paintings. The conference might last several days. Then the dealers were admitted. Matisse and his wife had had two sons, Jean (born 1899) and Pierre (born 1900). He was not always in peace with his family. He wrote that their views were not always in accord “which disturbs me considerably in my work, for which I require the most complete calm and from those how surround me, a serenity that I cannot find here. I intend to move to a village a few league away.” Pierre, his brother, Jean, and Marguerite remained close to their father through every vicissitude, and Matisse, in his last invalid years, was devoted to his several grandchildren. In 1899, at a time when his paintings displayed rebellious talent but not much clear direction, Matisse began attending classes in clay modeling and sculpture. Assigned to copy one of the sculptural masterpieces in the Louvre, he selected Jaguar Devouring a Hare a violently precise work by Antoine-Louis Barye. Later, whenever his paintings seemed stuck, he turned to sculpture to organize his thoughts and sensations. Influenced by the works of the post-Impressionists Paul Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Paul Signac, and also by Japanese art, Matisse made color a crucial element of his paintings. Matisse said, "In modern art, it is indubitably to Cézanne that I owe the most." By studying Cézanne’s fragmented planes -- which stretched the idea of the still life to a forced contemplation of color surfaces themselves -- Matisse was able to reconstruct his own philosophy of the still life. Many of his paintings from 1899 to 1905 make use of a pointillist technique adopted from Signac. In 1898, he went to London to study the paintings of J. M. W. Turner and then went on a trip to Corsica. After years in poverty, Matisse went through his "dark period" (1902-03), moved briefly to naturalism, went back to a dark palette and told friends in 1903 that he had lost all desire to paint and had almost decided to give up. Fortunately, Matisse was able to earn some money painting a frieze for the World Fair at the Grand Palais in Paris. He also traveled extensively in the early 1900s when tourism was still a new idea. Brought on by railroad, steamships, and other forms of transportation that appeared during the industrial revolution, travel became a popular pursuit. As a cultured tourist, he developed his art with regular doses of travel. FAUVISM Matisse's career can be divided into several periods that changed stylistically, but his underlying aim always remained the same: to discover "the essential character of things" and to produce an art "of balance, purity, and serenity," as he himself put it. The changing studio environments seemed always to have had a significant effect on the style of his work. In these first years of struggle Matisse set his revolutionary artistic agenda. He disregarded perspective, abolished shadows, repudiating the academic distinction between line and color. He was attempting to overturn a way of seeing evolved and accepted by the Western world for centuries by substituting a conscious subjectivity in the place of the traditional illusion of objectivity . Matisse hit his stride in the avant-garde art world in the first years of the new decade. He explored the modern art scene through frequent visits to galleries such as Durand-Ruel and Vollard, where he was exposed to work by Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh. Matisse’s first solo exhibition took place in 1904, without much success. In 16 May 1905 he arrived in the charming Catalan port of Collioure, in the south of France. He soon invited the painter André Derain (1880-1954), 11 years his junior, to join him. By 1905, Matisse was considered spearhead the Fauve movement in France, characterized by its spontaneity and roughness of execution as well as use of raw color straight from the palette to the canvas. Matisse combined pointillist color and Cézanne’s way of structuring pictorial space stroke by stroke to develop Fauvism - a way less of seeing the world than of feeling it with one’s eyes. When the Fauve summer drew to an end, Derain left Collioure with 30 paintings, 20 drawings and some 50 sketches, never to return, while Matisse departed some days later bringing back to Paris 15 finished paintings, 40 aquarelles, over 100 drawings. He returned Collioure in the summers of 1906, 1907, 1911 and 1914. The lure of the sun would prove always to have powers of restoration to the artist throughout his life particularly after periods of great emotional exertion. When Fauvist works were first exhibited Salon d'Automne in Paris they created a scandal. Eyewitness accounts tell of laughter emanating from room VII where they were displayed. Gertrud Stein, one of Matisse's most important future supporters, reported that people scratched at the canvases in derision. "A pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public" was the reaction by the critic Camille Mauclair. Louis Vauxcelles described the work with the historic phrase "Donatello au milieu des fauves!" (Donatello among the wild beasts), referring to a Renaissance-type sculpture that shared the room with them. His comment was printed on 17 October 1905 in Gil Blas, a daily newspaper, and passed into popular usage. Derain himself later called the Fauves' color "sticks of dynamite." The painting that was singled out for attacks was Matisse's Woman with a Hat, a portrait of Madame Matisse. This picture was bought be was bought by Gertrude and Leo Stein, a fact which had a very positive effect on Matisse who was suffering demoralization from the bad reception of his work. Matisse continued his experiments in Collioure, visible in the painting The Open Window and the View of Collioure , also a characteristic work of Fauvism in its raw color and disregard for details. Both of these works of the landscape in the French Mediterranean present a distinct development towards the spontaneous and uninhibited style. Other than André Derain, Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy and Maurice Vlaminck were also members of the Fauve movement. However, Matisse’s intimate friends among artists were mostly easygoing minor painters, such as Albert Marquet. Matisse’s temperamental aloneness made him prey to vertiginous depressions. He later recalled a breakdown that he underwent in Spain, in 1910: “My bed shook, and from my throat came a little high-pitched cry that I could not stop.” From the onset of is career women were from one of the cardinal motifs of the artist's production. His Joy of Life (1906) draws us into the world of hallucinatory vividness composed of nymphs set in an idyllic open fields dressed in pure color and sensual outline. Two women lounge in the sunlight while two more chat on the edge of the forest. One crouches to pick some flowers while her companion weaves a chain of them into her hair. A couple embraces each other while another group engages in a lively round-dance in the distance. In this way, Joy of Life depicts woodland nymphs engaging in a celebration of their life, their womanhood, and their sexuality. Due to the recurrent incidence of nude women and intensely sensual interpretation many observers have assumed that as a man Matisse must have been a hedonist. On the contrary, historic examination demonstrates that in reality, he was rather a self-abnegating Northerner who lived only to work, and did so in chronic anguish, recurrent panic, and amid periodic breakdowns. While Picasso recompensed himself, as he went along, with gratifications of intellectual and erotic play Matisse did not. In an age of ideologies, Matisse dodged all ideas except perhaps one: that art is life by other means. Matisse’s uninhibited celebration of women is often believed to have initiated from Cézanne’s painting Three Bathers (1882) (which he had acquired for himself along with a Van Gogh and a Gauguin). However, Matisse depicts women as nurturing, welcoming, and unlike the forbidding, massive clay-like presence of those of Paul Cézanne. FAME The decline of the Fauvist movement, after 1906, did nothing to deter the rise of Matisse. From 1906 -1917 he lived in Paris and established his home, studio, and school at Hôtel Biron. Among his neighbors is sculptor Auguste Rodin, writer Jean Cocteau, and dancer Isadora Duncan. Many of his finest works were created in this period, when he was an active part of the great gathering of artistic talent in Montparnasse, even though he did not quite fit in with his conservative appearance and strict bourgeois work habits. In fact, the aim of Matisse’s art was something less than revolutionary. In 1908, in a famous statement drawn from “Notes of a Painter,” Matisse declared as his ideal an art “for every mental worker, for the businessman as well as the man of letters, for example, a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.” Matisse's personal habits were incredibly regular. On a typical day rose early and worked all morning with a second work session after lunch, followed by violin practice, a simple supper (vegetable soup, two hard-boiled eggs, salad and a glass of wine) and an early bedtime. In 1906, he created a series of 12 lithographs, all variations on the theme of a seated nude. He chose to share his graphic work with the public almost immediately. The lithographs were exhibited at the Druet Gallery in Paris the same year that they were produced, and the woodcuts were shown at the Salon des Independants in the spring of 1907. In 1907 Appolinaire, commenting about Matisse in an article published in La Falange, said, "We are not here in the presence of an extravagant or an extremist undertaking: Matisse's art is eminently reasonable." Notwithstanding newly-won fame, Matisse's work continued to encounter vehement criticism and it was difficult for him to provide for his family. His controversial 1907 painting Blue Nude was burned in effigy at the Armory Show in Chicago in 1913. Contrary to the fate of the Impressionists, Matisse and other Fauves were able to exhibit in art galleries. In 1908 Paul Cassirer, the German art dealer and editor who played a significant role in the promotion of the work the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, staged an exhibit of Matisse’s works in Berlin. In the same year the American photographer Alfred Stieglitz in New York organized him one-man show in his tiny Manhattan gallery called 291 which effectively introduced Matisse the powerful American art market. In the first decade of his notoriety as the leader of the Fauves, Matisse was more admired by foreigners than by the French. It was, after all, the Russians and the Americans who acquired significant collections of his early work almost as quickly as it was created. The great Matisses we see in the Paris museums today were mostly acquired after the artist's death in lieu of death duties. It took the French a good deal longer to understand Matisse's greatness-longer, certainly, than the international cadre of aspiring talents that flocked to his classes when he was still one of the most controversial figures in the Paris avant-garde. In the summer of 1907, Matisse and his wife went on a long trip to italy "for work and Pleasure," visiting Venice and Padua, where they admired Giotto's frescos. In Florence the were the guests of the Steins in their villa in Fiesole. From this base matisse visited Arezzo, to study Piero della Francesca, and Siena, attracted by the early Sienese painters, especially, Duccio. PICASSO, GERTRUDE STEIN AND THE CONE SISTERS During the first decade of the 20th century Americans in Paris Gertrude Stein, her brothers Leo Stein, Michael Stein and Michael's wife Sarah took keen interest in Matisse's art. In addition, Gertrude Stein's two friends from Baltimore. Clarabel and Etta Cone, became major patrons of Matisse and Picasso, collecting hundreds of their works.The Cone Sisters acquired their first Matisse in 1906 and, during the next four decades, went on to form one of the world's great collections of his art. The Cone Collection not only contains major works from every phase of Matisse's long career but reflects the sisters' special interest in his Nice period, when a new complexity of form and psychology entered the ever intense surface allure of his paintings. In April of 1906 during a gathering at the house of the legendary Gertrude Stein, Matisse was introduced to Pablo Picasso who was 11 years younger. Picasso and Matisse were poles apart aesthetically and their life styles were no less so. Matisse was markedly taller and more polished than the stocky, cocky Catalan, was then ruler of the turbulent Paris avant-garde art scene. The two were said to have always been looking over their shoulders at each other. It is well-known that after their rivalry grew, sides were taken. Picasso later said: "No one has ever looked at Matisse's paintings more carefully than I; and no one has looked at mine more carefully than he." One key difference between their pictorial concepts was that Matisse drew and painted from nature, while Picasso was much more inclined to work from imagination. The subjects painted most frequently by both artists were women and still lives, with Matisse more likely to place his figures in fully realized interiors. Gertrude Stein, who loved stirring things up, wrote, "the feeling between the Picassoites and the Matisse-ites became bitter." Although Matisse dryly noted that "our disputes were always friendly," it should be pointed out that Picasso and his friends threw suction-cupped darts at Matisse's 1906 Portrait of Marguerite (which Picasso had obtained in a trade for his own Pitcher, Bowl and Lemon, from 1907). While the rift between the two artists eventually healed, the one between their supporters remained. ACADEMIE MATISSE IN PARIS & SERGEI SHCHUKIN In 1909, with the Matisse family lived in a former convent on the Boulevard des Invalides, in Paris, where the artist conducted a painting school. His immense notoriety, which had been confirmed in 1905-06 by Joy of Life, a work which seemed to trash every possible norm of pictorial order and painterly finesse.His friends organized and financed the Académie Matisse in Paris, a private and non-commercial school in which Matisse instructed young artists. It operated from 1911 until 1917. Hans Purrmann and Sarah Stein were several of his most loyal students. Although it lasted for only three years (1908-11), and yet, during its brief existence the Académie Matisse became one of the principal crossroads of modern painting for a number of gifted European and American artists. Given the reputation Matisse had acquired as the"wild man" of modernist color, it must have come as a shock to some of his early students that the program of instruction he offered was remarkably conservative. As Jean Heiberg, the first Norwegian to enroll in the Académie, later wrote in a memoir: "The school had, at Matisse's suggestion, acquired a copy of two antique sculptures from the Louvre, Mars and an archaic sculpture, which he often used to demonstrate. Every now and then he got completely rid of the life model and we only drew from the plaster casts, and his critiques then were no less profitable." Among Matisse’s students was Olga Meerson, a Russian Jew who had studied with Wassily Kandinsky in Munich and, already possessed of an elegant style, sought to remake herself under Matisse’s tutelage. Amélie suspected the worst. Perhaps a combination of Amélie’s jealousy and Meerson’s neediness caused a Matisse to end the connection, with bad feeling all around. Meerson moved to Munich, where she married the musician Heinz Pringsheim, a brother-in-law of Thomas Mann. Never having fulfilled her promise as a painter, she committed suicide in Berlin, in 1929. One of Matisse's biographers, with access to much of the artist's correspondence, contends that the artist, after his marriage, rarely, if ever, had sex with models, despite his apparent feelings for many. Two Russian art collectors stood out at the beginning of the 20th century: the cloth merchant Sergei Shchukin (1854–1936) and the textile manufacturer Ivan Morozov (1871–1921). Both acquired modern French art, developed a sensibility for spotting new trends, and publicized them in Russia. In this period, Matisse had initiated his fecund association with the Russian textile magnate and visionary collector, Sergei Shchukin. The artist created one of his major works La Danse specially for Shchukin as part of a two painting commission. Inspired by a circular dance-- perhaps a sardana - performed by fishermen at Collioure, this painting embodies the clash between the sacred and reality. Human hands link together, but they form a divine spirit. Moreover, Matisse all but abandoned perspective The work ’s flatness emphasizes the idea, colors, and material, a notion that made Matisse a model for Modernists. The other painting commissioned was Music, 1909. Shchukin was considered by some almost as a co-producer of some of the artist’s greatest works and was strongly commuted to the French painter’s work. Concerning the violent attacks on his friend, the Russian wrote to the artist: “The public is against you, but the future is yours.” By 1914 Shchukin’s house in Moscow contained thirty-seven Matisses. “He always picked the best,” the artist said. During the political revolution Lenin expropriated Shchukin collection in person but allowed Shchukin to remain, in servants’ quarters, as caretaker and guide. He died in Paris, in 1936. The collection is now in the Hermitage and Pushkin Museums From about 1911 to 1915, Matisse struggled with the ideas of Cubism, an experiment he felt he was "not participating in" because it did not "speak to [his] deeply sensory nature." MOROCCO Like many avant-garde artists in Paris, Matisse was receptive to a broad range of influences. He is one of the first painters to take an interest in various forms of “primitive” art. His art was profoundly influenced by Easter art...

Last One This Year This graphite pencil drawing ˜Roundism “ 30-12-22 is the last one of this year. After Neo Deco “ 25-12-22 I wanted to end this year in the style that brought me success the last decade. One could also argue that I just dont know where this particular style is heading for anyway. Surely I have this other thing, called ˜Neo Deco but I am not sure yet where this is going. Recently I wrote about my uncertainties with regard of serving something old as a new style. That is how it feels like, sort of. Maybe its just that I am trying to forge something out of dusty air of a bygone era. Its definitely a topic I want to delve much deeper into in 2023. For now I named all things round ˜roundism and cubistically straight things ˜neo deco. A pretty daft distinction perhaps. What do you think? Golden Ratio The motif for this actual work was derived from a reference picture taken by Walter Bird. The last one I used one of his photos for was Art Deco Nude “ 23-08-22. Even though the style of photographing is typically art deco I think his work stands out compared to many others. Not only did he use heavy doses of light and dark but also cropped nudes within the frame nicely. The result is a perfect bodyscape image. Due to the striking roundness of the breasts and tilted body position I thought drawing roundish shapes were almost unavoidable. I spotted some nice curves I extrapolated outside the female form. The ones besides her hip culminated into the golden ratio curves. A suitable ending for this year. The ending and the beginning of something entwined, as it should be. So is my search for the eternal and essential in the temporary. Graphite pencil (Faber Castell...

Boldly painted in vivid hues of red, deep pink, yellow and shades of blue, this abstract painting is attributed to Gino Severini, Italy's leading Modernist painter, who executed work...

This exquisite lithograph by Marc Chagall (1887–1985), titled Adam et Eve chasses du Paradis (Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise), from Marc Chagall, Dessins Pour La Bible (Drawings...

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Painting in his signature play on cubism Vadim Dolgov uses a grid system to engage shifting daylight through the artwork. The result provides the viewer with a beautiful array of col...

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A dynamic and kinetic Mid-Century Modernist/ Space Age chandelier in chrome and lucite by Gaetano Sciolari. The total height can be shortened to ~31" ht (without the chain links) and can be lengthened to suit any height with additional chain link extension. (38"ht with chain as shown in photos) Angelo Gaetano Sciolari (1927-1994) designer for the Italian manufacturer Stilnovo in the 1950s. His designs were imported to the American market by Lightolier & Progress Lighting...

The work is attributable to the painter Mario Barbieri, dated 1977. The scene depicts two monumental, stylized, and geometric male figures clutching a bunch of grapes or a branch of ...

Ben Wilson Ozymandias, 1989 Oil on masonite board Boldly signed by Ben Wilson on the back 36 × 48 inches Unframed Provenance: acquired from the Estate of Ben Wilson This work is titled "Ozymandias" after the famous sonnet written by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). Shelley's poem is one of the most poignant meditations on the fleeting nature of human power and the inevitability of decline. The poem serves as a reminder that time erodes even the most imposing empires and leaders and that the pursuit of lasting fame and control is ultimately futile. Depending on how one views Ben Wilson's Abstract Expressionist painting of "Ozymandias" -- some of the imagery might reveal the head of an angry king and a sickle. Shelley's poem Ozymandias reads: I met a traveler from an antique land...

A folio sheet from the Album MA by Sándor Bortnyik. Signed in pencil by the artist bottom right, numbered in pencil bottom left, number 50 from the edition of 140. Presented in plain...