Circus (Le Cirque) from Jazz, 1947

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Circus (Le Cirque) from Jazz, 1947

$33,000.00

Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)

Medium: Pochoir in colors on Arches paper

Edition: 250

Printer/Publisher: Tériade, Paris

Dimensions: 16 3/4 x 25 3/8 in. (30 3/4 x 39 3/8 in. with frame)

Catalogue Raisonné: Duthuit 22

It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression. - Henri Matisse

Arguably one of the most beloved works of twentieth-century art, Henri Matisse’s “Jazz” portfolio—with its inventiveness, spontaneity, and pure, intensely pigmented color— projects a sense of joy and freedom. The twenty images in the portfolio were based on collages that Matisse made by cutting sheets of vividly colored painted paper with scissors when, as an invalid, he could no longer paint. The painter compared his act of cutting into color to a sculptor cutting into stone. This new way of working, discovered late in his life, had an extraordinarily liberating effect on him. It became the means by which Matisse created remarkable and unparalled imagery.

This work seems even more astonishing when we realize that Matisse made this glorious affirmation of freedom in the years 1943 and 1944, in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in Occupied France during the grim years of the Second World War.

In the collection of:

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), NY

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