La Négresse

1952

Henri Matisse

Artist, French, 1869 - 1954

Shapes cut from pieces of painted paper suggest a person and flowers on this abstracted, horizontal composition. Slivers, curving segments, and circles made with black paper make up the silhouetted body of a person to the right. A shape with four long fingers extending downward suggests a marigold-yellow skirt around the person’s hips. Four-petaled flowers in shades of aquamarine blue, butter yellow, shamrock green, red, fuchsia, and orange float around the person, mostly to the left. A few pairs of black slivers suggest flying birds. The canvas background is streaked with ivory white and pale peach.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    paper collage on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 453.9 x 623.3 cm (178 11/16 x 245 3/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1973.6.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist's daughter, Mme Georges Duthuit [1894-1982, née Marguerite Émeline Matisse], Paris. David Thompson, Pittsburgh. (Galerie Beyeler, Basel); sold 1973 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1956

  • Rétrospecitve Henri Matisse, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1956, no. 35.

1959

  • Henri Matisse 1950-1954: Les grandes gouaches découpées, Kunsthalle Bern, 1959, no. 6, repro.

1960

  • Henri Matisse: Les grandes gouaches découpées, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1960, no. 6

  • Thompson Pittsburgh: Aus einer amerikanischen Privatsammlung, Kunsthaus Zurich, 1960, no. 133, repro.

1961

  • Collectie Thompson uit Pittsburgh, Haas Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, 1961, no. 127, repro.

  • Henri Matisse: Les grandes gouaches découpées, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, Paris, 1961, no. 12, repro.

1968

  • Matisse 1869-1954: A retrospective exhibition, Hayward Gallery, London, 1968, no. 131, repro.

1969

  • A La Rencontre de Matisse, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, France, 1969, no. 31, repro.

1970

  • Matisse: en retrospektiv udstilling, Statens Museums for Kunst, Copenhagen, 1970, no. 115, repro.

1977

  • Henri Matisse: Paper Cut-Outs, National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Detroit Institute of Arts; The St. Louis Art Museum, 1977-1978, no. 200, repro. [exhibited in Washington only]

1978

  • Aspects of Twentieth-Century Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978-1979, no. 90, repro.

Bibliography

1979

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 133, pl. 119.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 263, repro.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 315, color repro.

Wikidata ID

Q6464197

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