Beasts of the Sea

1950

Henri Matisse

Artist, French, 1869 - 1954

Two columns of brightly colored rectangles are layered with geometric shapes and organic forms in this abstract, vertical artwork. The rectangles are painted, and the abstract shapes are cut from pieces of painted paper. The left column is stacked top to bottom with rectangles in black, lime green, sage green, sunshine yellow, watermelon pink, and amethyst purple. There is also a pink triangle above the pink rectangle, near the middle of the column. Spanning different sections of the column are a blue spiral and a curling blue line, white petal-like shapes, and purple and blue stylized leaves, perhaps seaweed, and triangles. A narrow black form like the profile of a stylized fish and a curve radiating spikes float in the middle of the column. The rectangles of the right column are silvery gray, goldenrod yellow, bright green, lime green, sunshine yellow, and sapphire blue. The column is layered with two more black spiky shapes, a short vertical royal-blue curving line, and an elongated, white U shape. A long, black S-shape floats over the top four rectangles, and a pumpkin-orange spiral lies on top of a sapphire-blue circle near the yellow rectangle at the bottom. That yellow rectangle has blue rectangle at its center and a darker yellow rectangle to the left. There is a white wavy line up the blue area, a black wavy line to each side in the yellow, and one black heart-shape near the each of the lower corners of the blue field. Higher up, the lime-green rectangle in each column also has a smaller, darker green rectangle painted within. The work is set against a flat, parchment-brown background. The artist wrote the title in black cursive letters across bottom, “les betes de la mer...” and signed and dated the lower right, “H. Matisse 50.”
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gouache on paper, cut and pasted on white paper, mounted on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 295.5 × 154 cm (116 5/16 × 60 5/8 in.)
    gross weight: 63.504 kg (140 lb.)

  • Accession

    1973.18.1

More About this Artwork

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

Vie des Arts Est., Geneva; sold 1973 through (Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York) to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1951

  • Exhibited in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, 1951.

  • Henri Matisse, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Cleveland Museum of Art; The Art Institute of Chicago; San Francisco Museum of Art, 1951-1952, no. 74a.

1959

  • Henri Matisse 1950-1954: Les grandes gouaches découpées, Kunsthalle Bern, 1959, no. 1, repro.

1961

  • Henri Matisse: Les grandes gouaches découpées, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, Paris, 1961, no. 7.

  • The Last Works of Henri Matisse: Large Cut Gouaches, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, San Francisco Museum of Art, no. 4, 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. 114, repro.

1978

  • Aspects of Twentieth-Century Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978-1979, no. 92, repro.

1982

  • Henri Matisse, Kunsthaus Zurich; Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1982-1983, no. 101.

1992

  • Henri Matisse: A Retrospective, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992-1993, no. 393, repro.

1993

  • Drawings and Papiers Découpés by Henri Matisse, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany, 1993-1994, no. 149, repro. 267.

2005

  • Henri Matisse: Figur Farbe Raum [Henri Matisse: Figure Couleur Espace], Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Fondation Beyeler, Basel, 2005-2006, shown only in Basel, unnumbered cat., repro. (Basel/French cat.), fig. 135 (Basel/German cat.)

2015

  • Collection Conversations: The Chrysler and the National Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 2015, no catalogue.

Bibliography

1978

  • King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 111, pl. 71.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 592, no. 916, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 264, repro.

2004

  • Henri Matisse: Processus/Variation. Exh. cat. National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, 2004: 220, fig. 6.

Inscriptions

across bottom: les betes de la mer... /; lower right: H. Matisse50

Wikidata ID

Q4876888

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