Henri Matisse

Title: Matisse drawing an odalisque,
Nice, c. 1928
Gift of Henri Matisse in 1952
Museum Department Matisse,
Le Cateau-Cambresis
© All rights reserved
Image Courtesy: The Royal Academy of Arts

Henri Matisse's interest in textiles began in his childhood with his hobby of collecting fabrics. They provided a lifelong inspiration to him.

Title: The Moorish Screen, 1921
Artist: Henri Matisse (French 1869-1954)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 90.8 x 74.3 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Bequest of Lisa Norris Elkins, 1950
© Succession H Matisse/DACS 2004
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts

Title: Turkish Entari (Woman's Robe), nineteenth century
Artist: Unidentified
Medium: Silk
Dimensions: 160 X 55 cm
Private Collection
Image Courtesy: The Royal Academy of Arts

Matisse, His Art and His Textiles The Fabric of his Dreams delves into the relationship between his two passions textiles and painting.

The crux of the exhibit is a display of Matisse's collection, many of which have not been seen or displayed for over fifty years.

Title: Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Background, 1926
Artist: Henri Matisse (French 1869-1954)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 130 x 98 cm
Permanent Collection: Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Photo © CNAC/MNAM Dist. RMN/Adam Rzepka
© Succession H Matisse/DACS 2004
Image Courtesy: The Royal Academy of Arts

Title: French Printed Fabric, 19th century
Artist: Unidentified
Medium: Fabric - cotton and linen
Dimensions: 125X177 cm
Private Collection
Photo John Hammond
Image Courtesy: The Royal Academy of Arts

Thirty of his paintings will be on view as a comparison point with the fabrics.

The exhibit is chronological beginning with Matisse's birthplace, the textile town Bohain, located in northern France. This section is a collection of colorful silk juxtaposed with the still-life paintings from the artist's early career.

Title: North African Haiti
(Pierced and Appliquéd Hanging)
Late 19th/Early20th Century
Artist: Unidentified
Medium: Fabric - colored cotton
Appliquéd to Sackcloth
Dimensions: 190 X 129 cm
Private Collection
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts

Title: Odalisque with Yellow Persian Robe and Anemones, 1937
Artist: Henri Matisse (French 1869-1954)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 55.2 x 46 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia,
The Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White Collection, 1967
Photo Graydon Wood
© Succession H Matisse/DACS 2004
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts

Second is the flowered cotton 'Toile de Jouy' his inspiration prior to the Great War.

At the end of the war in 1918, Matisse used his studio as a private theatre. It was filled with Arab robed models and others in the costumes that he favored which he translated onto canvas.

The last portion of the exhibit deals with the Africam influences from his Zaire Kuba fabric collection. Matisse credited these fabrics with his development of paper cut-outs, several of which will be found in this section of the exhibit.

These paper shapes in abstract patterns were no doubt inspired with the limitations placed on the artist in his last years, his failing health causing him to be bed ridden. He favored such strong colors that his doctors recommended dark glasses to save his eyes.

Title: Composition with Red Cross 1947
Artist: Henri Matisse (French 1869-1954)
Medium: Colored Gouache Collage on Paper
Dimensions: 73.6 X 52.4cm
Private Collection USA Courtesy Nancy Whyte Fine Arts, Inc New York
© Succession H Matisse/DACS 2004
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts

Title: Snow Flowers, 1951
Artist: Henri Matisse (French 1869-1954)
Medium: Watercolor and Gouache on Cut and Pasted Papers
Dimensions: 174 X 80.6cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, 1998
© Succession H Matisse/DACS 2004
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts

Matisse's genius in color usage is reflected with this exhibit of his textiles and his artwork. Each demonstrating the inspiration he found in one to the development of the other.