Pianist and Checker Players
1924
Artist, French, 1869 - 1954
Through the 1920s, Matisse stayed in Nice from late fall to early spring of each year, while his wife and family remained in Issy-les-Moulineaux outside Paris. Pianist and Checker Players is set in Matisse's Nice apartment and shows the artist's favorite model, Henriette Darricarère, and her two brothers. The painting can be seen as a surrogate family portrait, with Henriette standing in for Matisse's daughter, and the two boys representing his sons. But regardless of the relationship between the artist and his subjects, this is distinctly Matisse's world: near the empty armchair at the center of the painting where the artist might sit, his violins hang from the armoire and his drawings and paintings are tacked to the wall.
The possible psychological complexities of the painting are more than matched by those of its pictorial organization. In few paintings does Matisse manage to control such an extraordinary proliferation of pattern and ornamentation. To this decorative profusion Matisse adds an equivalent abundance of perspectival viewpoints: piano, chairs, floor, and bureau are each pictured from different angles. Despite the wealth of pictorial elements, a curious, calm order of structured harmony prevails. #Pianist and Checker Players# is suffused with a warm glow made up of complementary tones of yellow and red.
East Building Ground Level, Gallery 103-E
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 73.7 x 92.4 cm (29 x 36 3/8 in.)
framed: 96.5 x 115.2 x 6.6 cm (38 x 45 3/8 x 2 5/8 in.) -
Accession
1985.64.25
More About this Artwork
Video: Miniature Masters: Henri Matisse's "Pianist and Checker Players"
Enter the world of Henri Matisse’s Pianist and Checker Players through the magic of miniatures.
Video: How to Create a Henri Matisse Collage for Kids
Learn how to create your very own cut-out, Henri Matisse-inspired collage with just paper, scissors, and a glue stick!
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Sold 21 October 1924 by the artist to (Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris); by whom sold 24 October 1924 to Georges Bernheim, Paris;[1] sold to Paul Rosenberg, Paris;[2] sold to (Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York); sold 1951 to (Paul Rosenberg and Co., New York); Alexandre Rosenberg, New York; sold c. 1977 to (Eugene Victor Thaw and Co., New York);[3] sold January 1978 to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1985 to NGA.
[1] See Guy-Patrice and Michel Dauberville, Henri Matisse Chez Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1995, volume 2, no. 607.
[2] This painting was confiscated by the ERR with others from the Rosenberg collection in France in 1941 (ERR Inventory card UNB335, National Archives RG 260/Property Division/Box 22). It was selected by Hermann Goering from the Jeu de Paume, one of the six untitled paintings by Matisse from the Rosenberg collection listed as numbers 48-53 on the Nachtrag zur Liste v. 20.10.42 der für die Sammlung des Reichsmarschalls Hermann Göring abgegebenen Kunstgegenstände dated 9 April 1943 (OSS Consolidated Interrogation Report #2, The Goering Collection, Attachment 5, National Archives RG239/Entry73/Box 78) and traded 10 December 1941 to Gustav Rochlitz, in whose possession it remained until the end of the war. It was recovered in one of Rochlitz' residences in Bavaria and transferred to the Munich Central Collecting Point, and restituted to France on 27 March 1946 (OSS Detailed Interrogation Report #4, Gustav Rochlitz, National Archives RG239/Entry 74/Box 84 and Munich property card #8049/15; French Receipt for Cultural Objects no. 5A, item no. 298; copies in NGA curatorial files). It was returned to Paul Rosenberg on 17 May 1946 (See letter from the Ministere des Affiares Etrangeres dated 20 February 2001 in NGA curatorial files). After its restitution, the painting was exhibited in the 1946 Les Chefs-d'oeuvre des collections privées françaises retrouvés en Allemagne par la Commission de Récupération artistique et les Services alliés, no. 53.
[3] Post-war provenance details per Henri Matisse: The Early Years in Nice 1916-1930, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, 1986, no. 129, and draft entry for forthcoming NGA systematic catalogue, in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1934
Georges Braque - Henri Matisse - Pablo Picasso from the Paul Rosenberg Collection, Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, 1934, no. 24
1937
Les Maitres de l'art indépendant 1895-1937, Petit Palais, Paris, 1937, no. 34
1946
Les chefs-d'oeuvres des collections privées françaises retrouvés en Allemagne, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1946, no. 53
1966
Henri Matisse, UCLA Art Galleries; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966, no. 59, repro.
1975
Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1975, no. 71, repro.
1978
Aspects of Twentieth-Century Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978-1979, no. 46, repro., as Checker Game and Piano Music.
1986
Henri Matisse: The Early Years in Nice 1916-1930, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1986-7, no. 129, repro.
Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist, repro.
1987
Matisse et l'Italie, Assessorato alla Cultura, Venice, 1987, no. P41, repro.
1992
Henri Matisse: A Retrospective, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992-1993, no. 257, repro.
1997
Henri Matisse: 'La révélation m'est venue de l'Orient', Musei Capitolini,, 1997-1998, no. 66, repro.
2005
Henri Matisse: Figur Farbe Raum [Henri Matisse: Figure Color Space], Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; Fondation Beyeler, Basel, 2005-2006, no. 114, repro. (Düsseldorf cat.), fig. 73 (Basel/Franch cat.), fig. 77 (Basel/German cat.).
2008
Matisse: Menschen, Masken, Modelle [Matisse: People, Masks, Models], Stattsgalerie Stuttgart; Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 2008-2009, no. 67, repro. (shown only in Stuttgart).
2009
Matisse: 1917-1941, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2009, no. 29, repro.
2011
Matisse: La seduzione di Michelangelo, Museo di Santa Giulia, Brescia, 2011, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
2013
Henir Matisse: La Musicalité d'un Oeuvre, Musée Matisse, Nice, 2013, no catalogue.
2015
Collection Conversations: The Chrysler and the National Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 2015, no catalogue.
2017
Matisse - Bonnard. "Long live painting!", Städel Museum, Frankfurt, 2017-2018, no. 21, repro.
Matisse and American Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville; Montclair Art Museum; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, 2017, no. 9, repro. (shown only in Montclair).
2019
Arabesque, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 2019 - 2020, no. 25, repro.
Bibliography
1989
Strick, Jeremy. Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture: Selections for the Tenth Anniversary of the East Building. Washington, D.C., 1989: 42, repro. 43.
1991
Gingold, Diane J., and Elizabeth A.C. Weil. The Corporate Patron. New York, 1991: 104-105, color repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 259, repro.
1995
Dauberville, Guy-Patrice and Michel. Henri Matisse Chez Bernheim-Jeune. 2 vols. Paris, 1995:II:no. 607.
1997
Matisse: La révélation m'est venue de l'Orient, Exh. cat., Musei capitolini, Rome, 1997: 190, no. 66, repro.
Mittler, Gene A., and Rosalind Ragans. Understanding Art. New York, 1997: fig. 16-1.
2000
Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 264
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 416, no. 347, color repro.
2009
Cooper, Harry. The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: Selected Works. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2009: 14, repro.
Inscriptions
lower right: Henri Matisse
Wikidata ID
Q20192515