L'Escargot (The Snail), 1953
L'Escargot (The Snail), 1953
Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)
Medium: Color Lithograph Derived from the Cut-Paper Original Maquette
Edition No.: 1st Edition, Vol. IX, no. 35 & 36/6,500
Signed in plate, lower right
Publisher: Tériade, Paris
Printer: Mourlot Atelier, Paris
Dimensions: 25" x 25"
Catalogue Raisonné: Duthuit 139, Freitag 6231
After 1948 Matisse was prevented from painting by ill health but, although confined to bed, he produced a number of works known as gouaches découpées. These were made by cutting or tearing shapes from paper which had been painted with gouache. The shapes were placed and pasted down by an assistant working under Matisse's instruction. Some of the later ones, such as The Snail, were of very large dimensions. The technique, explored in his picture book Jazz (published 1947) and other works, opened up new possibilities for him. Matisse said of the technique that it 'allows me to draw in the colour. It is a simplification for me. Instead of drawing the outline and putting the colour inside it - the one modifying the other - I draw straight into the colour' (quoted in Amis de l'art, October 1951).
In the collection of:
Minneapolis Museum of Art (MIA), MN
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