HENRI MATISSE is considered to be FRANCE's greatest artist of the 20th century. He was a painter and maker of collages , famous for both his colorful and optimistic sunlit paintings and his groundbreaking, hand-painted "cut-ups" that he made when his health no longer permitted him to paint. This superb 68 years old VINTAGE LITHOGRAPH , made by HENRI MATISSE, is a FIRST EDITION printing, published by EDITIONS VERVE of PARIS in the Autumn of 1948. This is one of SIX Matisse fully-authorized VINTAGE LITHOGRAPHS that we are auctioning (in six separate lots) as part of our HELD-OVER SPECIAL CLEARANCE SALE. Please view our other ones too.
Please note : this is a solid-ink , real, fine-art vintage lithograph ---NOT an offset (dot matrix) edition. It is a real European art-lithograph from 1948. (Previously published, in French, in Paris in 1987): The project got underway while Teriade was spending Christmas of 1947 at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.The paintings strewn about Matisse's studio and house were important enough (and there were enough of them) to fill an issue of Verve. Apparently, Matisse was quite willing to round out reproductions of this work with line drawings he would do in his garden and in the garden of Teriade's Villa Natacha.
Pomegranates, acanthus leaves, oranges and orange-tree leaves, ivy leaves cast on white pages, provide this issue with a rhythmic "breathing" and act as interstitial tissue between the paintings. These line drawings, done quickly without corrections, were repetitions of a single motif.
Matisse drew them while sitting in his wheelchair; often the work was physically taxing. Today they strike us as spiritual excercises, an ascecis of the eyes.Even then they were precursors of the designs for the glazed ceramic tiles in the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence and in Teriade's dining room in the Villa Natacha. The black line lithograph is printed on a light cream-beige paper, with a color litho of one of Matisse's then new paintings on the verso that color one is in fact a lovely, vintage, offset litho. The sheet-size measures: 14" x 10 3/8" (35 1/2 cm x 26 1/2 cm), currently unframed. CRAYON-SIGNED , by hand: H Matisse , in the lower-right. Published in 1948 (recorded as Autumn, 1948 in the Verve catalogues raisonne but not dated on the sheet itself).
Note that a hand-signature adds vastly to the value and collectibility of a vintage lithograph. These Verve lithos were not normally signed. Matisse signed these for a collector or friend in France almost 70 years ago. A FIRST EDITION printing by the esteemed Paris-based art-publisher, owner and creative director of Verve, and good friend of Henri Matisse: Michel Teriade. Some areas of slight tonal shift (due to age) to a very slightly darker tone in the very outer margins of the paper only---NOT affecting the printed areas at all. A little corner-wear at the very tips of most corners only.A RARE and terrific litho! An exquisite , truly VINTAGE Matisse FIRST EDTION work from over 67 years ago, HAND-SIGNED in BROWN CRAYON.
WAY BELOW market value with NO RESERVE!! Offered for our Held-Over Clearance Sale Week Only! VERY RARE --- CRAYON SIGNED!
They are all very rare and were all published and hand-signed over 67 years ago. We also have one Matisse original drawing this week too! FINAL CLEARANCE OF BOTH NEW & UNSOLD ITEMS. The item "HENRI MATISSE - A RARE FIRST EDITION CRAYON SIGNED FRENCH LITHOGRAPH, LITHO" is in sale since Sunday, July 24, 2016. This item is in the category "Art\Art from Dealers & Resellers\Prints". The seller is "spacelab70" and is located in West Hollywood, California. This item can be shipped worldwide.