Past Exhibition

Twentieth-Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection

Four yellow apples, a lime, and a ceramic pitcher are loosely arranged across a tabletop covered with a carnation-pink cloth patterned with white flowers in this almost square, stylized still life painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes in saturated colors throughout. We look slightly down onto the front corner of the table, where the canary-yellow apples sit in the folds of the tablecloth. The apple closest to us at the corner of the table has a scarlet-red patch on the side facing us. Between the two rightmost apples, the lime is painted in shamrock and fern green. The cloth is bunched up just behind the apples to partially obscure the pitcher sitting near the back of the table. The pitcher is painted with swipes and patches of white, aquamarine blue, and silver gray with gold highlights along its spout. Daubs of pine green, rose pink, and flame red suggest a floral decoration on its side. The wall beyond the table fills the height of the composition, and is scattered with white flowers layered over an aquamarine-blue background. The blossoms seem oversized, each the size of a blown-up balloon. Other leafy forms painted with sapphire blue and plum purple could be more flowers or leaves. Two vertical stripes to the left and right behind the table are made up of strokes and daubs of caramel brown over honey yellow. The artist signed the lower right, “Henri-Matisse.”
Henri Matisse, Still Life with Apples on a Pink Tablecloth, 1924, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.169

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    Main Floor, Galleries 60A, 60B, 62, 64
Four yellow apples, a lime, and a ceramic pitcher are loosely arranged across a tabletop covered with a carnation-pink cloth patterned with white flowers in this almost square, stylized still life painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes in saturated colors throughout. We look slightly down onto the front corner of the table, where the canary-yellow apples sit in the folds of the tablecloth. The apple closest to us at the corner of the table has a scarlet-red patch on the side facing us. Between the two rightmost apples, the lime is painted in shamrock and fern green. The cloth is bunched up just behind the apples to partially obscure the pitcher sitting near the back of the table. The pitcher is painted with swipes and patches of white, aquamarine blue, and silver gray with gold highlights along its spout. Daubs of pine green, rose pink, and flame red suggest a floral decoration on its side. The wall beyond the table fills the height of the composition, and is scattered with white flowers layered over an aquamarine-blue background. The blossoms seem oversized, each the size of a blown-up balloon. Other leafy forms painted with sapphire blue and plum purple could be more flowers or leaves. Two vertical stripes to the left and right behind the table are made up of strokes and daubs of caramel brown over honey yellow. The artist signed the lower right, “Henri-Matisse.”
Henri Matisse, Still Life with Apples on a Pink Tablecloth, 1924, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.169

Overview: A large part of Chester Dale's collection of 20th-century art, this group of 59 paintings was placed on indefinite loan at the National Gallery. His 19th-century paintings were already on view in galleries 76, 77, 83, 84, 85, 88, and 90. The loan included works by 22 artists, among them Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Rouault. Many of these paintings had previously been on exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Catalog: Twentieth-Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection, introduction by Maud Dale, catalogue notes by William P. Campbell. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1952.

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