Provenance

Pierre Matisse Gallery

Matisse Gallery Corp., Pierre
Pierre Matisse Gallery

established 1931

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See all 17 works of art
A woman plays an upright piano as two boys play checkers at a table in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted with areas of flat color and pattern. The people have pale, peachy skin and dark brown hair. Their facial features are painted with dots or short strokes of black. The piano is against the wall to our left. The woman wears a short-sleeved, lemon-yellow dress with a long skirt. A music book is propped on the music stand, and loosely painted objects line the top of the instrument. The wall behind the piano is patterned with white and pale yellow flowers under and around arches against a cranberry-red background. The table where the boys play is in the middle of the room. The players sit in wooden chairs and wear black and white striped jackets with white collars. The boy to our right looks at the board while resting his left cheek, closer to us, in his hand. The other boy looks on with his arms on the table in front of him. The checkerboard sits on a red and white striped cloth, which has lines of black dots in the white strips. Beneath the table is a floral rug with blue and black flowers against a red background. The border is painted loosely with leafy shapes against bright white. Beneath the area rug the floor or another carpet is garnet red with a diamond-shaped grid painted in orange. A petal-pink, upholstered chair sits in front of a tall wardrobe in the back corner of the room. A picture with two violins against a blue background hangs on the side of the furniture to our right. A chest of drawers next to the wardrobe holds a few bowls or objects and a white statue, about half human height. The statue is of a person standing with one knee bent in front of the other, one elbow tucked by the side with that hand held to the chest, and the other bent elbow raised overhead. Pictures hang on the wall around the statue, and the wallpaper there is ivory white with a dark yellow pattern. The artist signed the work in the lower right corner, “Henri Matisse.”
Henri Matisse, Pianist and Checker Players, 1924, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.25

Pianist and Checker Players

Henri Matisse · 1924 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.25

Shown from the thighs up, a light-skinned man stands facing us in front of a harvest-yellow background in this loosely painted vertical portrait. The man’s body faces us, and he looks out with dark, heavy-lidded eyes under low, angular brows. His skin is pink on his full cheeks and streaked with light green on his forehead. A wide brown moustache droops over a prominent, square chin. His short brown is neatly combed over his head. His collared, long-sleeved white shirt is painted with mostly vertical strokes. A short vivid red tie falls about halfway down his chest, and he wears dark pants. His right arm, to our left, is planted on that hip, and his other arm hangs by his side. The man’s features and his clothing are outlined with teal green. The name “PETRVS MANACH” is painted in forest-green letters in the upper left corner of the rich yellow background. The artist also signed the work in the lower right corner, “Picasso.”
Pablo Picasso, Pedro Mañach, 1901, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.53

Pedro Mañach

Pablo Picasso · 1901 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.53

An abstracted nude man strides forward on long, spindly legs with his arms by his sides in this free-standing bronze sculpture. The man’s limbs are unnaturally thin and elongated with oversized hands and feet. The surface of the sculpture and the narrow, rectangular base is bumpy and rough. His body is angled to our right against a light gray background in this photograph.
Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man II, 1960, bronze, Gift of Enid A. Haupt, 1977.47.7

Walking Man II

Alberto Giacometti · 1960 · bronze ·  Accession ID  1977.47.7

A nude woman sitting with bent knees is carved from white marble in this freestanding sculpture. In this view, the woman’s body faces us. Her right knee, to our left, is bent so that leg lies along the ground. Her feet are together, and the other bent leg is upright. She holds her left hand, to our right, to that cheek so the elbow is close to the raised knee. She leans onto her other hand, which is placed just behind her with the fingers facing in. Her round face tips toward her raised hand, and she has delicate features and wide cheeks. Her hair is parted down the middle, rolled along her hairline, and is pulled back. The square base on which she sits is carved from the same piece of marble. The sculpture is photographed against a gray background.
Aristide Maillol, La Méditerranée, c. 1906, Carrara marble, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.17

La Méditerranée

Aristide Maillol · c. 1906 · Carrara marble ·  Accession ID  1995.47.17

The abstracted silhouette of a woman holding a tall jug is cut out of paper painted lapis blue in this vertical composition. The woman is on the right half of this composition. Her head, arms, breasts, torso, and upper legs are pieced together with blocky forms. Both arms reach up to support a tall, narrow amphora jug overhead. Four blue pomegranates to the left near the woman’s legs and torso are arranged in an arc, like an opening parenthesis. Most of the woman is against a yellowed rectangle of paper, which is itself affixed to the cream-white canvas. A blue band rises most of the height of the canvas near the right edge.
Henri Matisse, Woman with Amphora and Pomegranates, 1953, gouache on paper, cut and pasted on white paper, mounted on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1973.18.3

Woman with Amphora and Pomegranates

Henri Matisse · 1953 · gouache on paper, cut and pasted on white paper, mounted on canvas ·  Accession ID  1973.18.3

This is a drawing of a man's face. His face is slightly turned to the left, and he looks at us out of the corners of his eyes. He has light skin, a white beard and mustache, and thinning hair. His eyebrows are dark and appear furrowed above his large, round eyes. He wears round glasses seated on the bridge of his nose. Around his neck is the outline of a collar. The background is blank paper.
Henri Matisse, Self-Portrait, 1937, charcoal with stumping on laid paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.104

Self-Portrait

Henri Matisse · 1937 · charcoal with stumping on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1985.64.104

The image displays intersecting angular shapes and lines in a complex pattern. Bright colors, such as yellows, oranges, and purples, are layered between the white geometric shapes.
Simon Hantaï, Untitled, 1971, watercolor on prepared, folded linen, Corcoran Collection (Gift of Olga Hirshhorn), 2015.143.1396

Untitled

Simon Hantaï · 1971 · watercolor on prepared, folded linen ·  Accession ID  2015.143.1396

Two cut pieces of royal-blue paper are affixed to a cream-white background in this vertical composition. The blue paper is cut so that the center between the two sheets creates an abstracted female form with a neck, shoulders, a breast to each side, a waist, and curving hips. The blue paper on our right spans the height of the composition and the left piece is shorter, stopping at what would be the hip. The blue is painted in horizontal strokes so streaks are visible. The artist signed the work with his initials near the lower right corner, “HM.”
Henri Matisse, Venus, 1952, gouache on paper, cut and pasted on white paper, mounted on paper panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1973.18.2

Venus

Henri Matisse · 1952 · gouache on paper, cut and pasted on white paper, mounted on paper panel ·  Accession ID  1973.18.2

The sculpture depicts a simplified, abstract form of a human figure seated atop a horse. The figure is riding the horse without any saddle or reins, and both the rider and the horse are designed in a stylized minimalistic manner with elongated forms and smooth surfaces. The entire sculpture appears to be made of a dark metal, likely bronze, with a patinated surface, giving it a monochromatic brownish color that highlights its texture. The horse is standing on slender, elongated legs, and the rider's posture is upright. The sculpture is positioned on a rectangular base, which supports the composition. The backdrop is neutral.
Marino Marini, Horseman, 1947, bronze, Gift of Enid A. Haupt, 1977.47.9

Horseman

Marino Marini · 1947 · bronze ·  Accession ID  1977.47.9

At least two surreal, imaginary creatures are surrounded by rubbed and blended orbs of coral orange, dandelion yellow, cobalt blue, emerald green, black, gray, and pastel green and pink in this abstracted painting. The larger being is in the center of the canvas and nearly reaches the top edge. Its triangular, oblong head has a tiny face with two eyes, a nose, and a dash for a mouth at the top corner. A long, sinuous neck reaches halfway down the composition to join the oval-shaped body, which has two thick arms with small hands. A V-shaped form at the center of the body, like folded wings, and a rounded bottom are difficult to interpret. What may be legs are fragmented fields of flat cardinal red, black, yellow, and green. The second creature is about a third the height of the first. Tucked in the lower right corner of the canvas, this critter has a tiny bird-like head, a bulbous body, and long legs. A second bird with a short beak and a crest like a rooster appears to be superimposed upside down on the other bird, so the clawed feet point upward. A six-pointed star painted in black with two red triangles and one yellow triangle at its center is over the birds. A tall shape made of black circles like a tower of bubbles is to the left. The upper corners of the painting are rubbed with mostly gray and black, and patches of color create a loose band across the composition about a third of the way down the canvas. Some areas, like the two birds in the lower right, might be drawn directly onto the textured canvas. The artist signed the lower right corner, “Miró.”
Joan Miró, The Shooting Star, 1938, oil on canvas, Gift of Joseph H. Hazen, 1970.36.1

The Shooting Star

Joan Miró · 1938 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.36.1