Books by Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse: Drawings 1936, A Facsimile Reproduction

by Henri Matisse, Christian Zervos, Tristan Tzara, Richard Howard

A collection written over fifty years, Makes You Stop and Think is the latest work from the accomplished and renowned poet Daniel Hoffman.

"The sonnet is a sacred // vessel, it takes a civilization / to conceive its shape or know / its uses," the poet Louise Bogan told "a crowd of bearded youths" and "rumpled girls." Hoffman's harvest of half a century's sonnets shows the richness and power of their form. These poems revel in exploring memory and feeling:

For reality is vintage and delicious
Especially when you taste it while it brews
Because it comes as love comes, heart-skip sudden,
Yet long as a lifetime in a once past wishes,
A gift you couldn't have the wit to choose.

Henri Matisse Jazz

by Henri Matisse

A superior edition of the most admired artists’ books in the history of modern art, with beautiful and accurate recreations of Matisse’s colorful paper cutouts Henri Matisse’s Jazz is one of the pre-eminent artists’ book in the history of modern art. In 1947, Matisse was in his seventies and suffering poor health, and he preferred the simple, fluid act of cutting forms from painted paper to drawing and painting. He began working on illustrations for a book of poems using this assemblage technique. As his notes, written with a paintbrush in looping letters, became integral, the publisher agreed that they should replace the poems.

This large-scale facsimile edition brims with drama and shows why Jazz is considered Matisse’s most celebrated―and joyous―foray into the combination of color and form. The loose-leaf folded facsimile pages are gathered in a special ribbon-tied, cloth-bound presentation case. Many of these images were inspired by the theater or circus, settings that connect the visual and musical through improvisation―a theme that can be felt running through the compositions of the prints themselves. Such iconic prints as Icare (“Icarus”) and L’avaleur de sabres (“The Sword Swallower”) appear alongside paintbrush-composed notes Matisse wrote for himself as he created the images. This edition is accompanied by a special book mounted on the reverse of box cover, featuring both a translation of Matisse’s text and two new essays: one examining Jazz’s principal place among other artists’ books; the other surveying the history of artists’ books as a field.
20 color illustrations

Blue & Other Colors: with Henri Matisse (First Concepts With Fine Artists)

by Henri Matisse

Fine artists are paired with early learning concepts in this groundbreaking series for the toddler set.
Henri Matisse's abstract cut-outs are used to teach colors in this polished read-aloud board book. Blue & Other Colors takes children through Matisse's color palette, one artwork per page, beginning with blue and returning to it as a familiar refrain throughout. The variance of shapes, depth, and scale will keep readers engaged, while the text enriches the reading experience with relatable and humorous commentary. Readers will not only learn their colors, but also grow familiar with fine art in this relevant and relatable first title in this series of concept books featuring the most innovative and influential artists. Includes a read-aloud "about the artist" at the end.
Created for ages 1-3 years

Matisse Picasso

by Henri Matisse, Anne Baldassari, Elizabeth Cowling, Pablo Picasso, John Golding, Isabelle Monod-Fontaine

Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso have long been seen as the twin giants of modern art, as polar opposites but also as complementary figures. Between them they are the originators of many of the most significant innovations of 20th-century painting and sculpture, but their relationship has rarely been explored in all of its closeness and complexity. In spite of their initial rivalry, the two masters eventually acknowledged one another as equals, becoming, in their old age, increasingly important to one another both artistically and personally. From the time of their initial encounters in 1906 in Gertrude and Leo Stein's Paris studio until 1917, they individually produced some of the greatest art of the 20th century and maintained an openly competitive relationship brimming with intense innovation. This period saw them create such works as Picasso's majestic "Woman with a Fan" of 1908 and Matisse's great portrait of his wife of 1913. Matisse responds to Synthetic Cubism in his "Piano Lesson" of 1916 and Picasso comes back in turn with a new, more decorative Cubism in "Three Musicians" of 1921. The 20s saw them grow apart, as Matisse moved from Paris to Nice and Picasso became involved with the Surrealists, but the 30s brought them together again, through their sheer fame and devotion to reality-based art. Their story continues until Matisse's death in 1954, when Picasso paid his friend and colleague tribute in his series Women of Algiers, of which he said, "When Matisse died, he left his odalisques to me as a legacy." Matisse Picasso presents the artists' oeuvres in groupings that reveal the affinities but also the extreme contrasts of their artistic visions. Published to accompany the landmark exhibition, a joint effort of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Tate Modern, London; the Raunion des musaes nationaux/Musae Picasso and the Musae national d'art moderne/Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Matisse Picasso is the first major examination of the fascinating relationships between their art, their careers, and their lives. Thirty-four essays, each by a member of the exhibition's curatorial team, focus on a particular moment in the artists' evolving relationship. The authors present in-depth analyses of specific aspects of the unique artistic dialogue between Matisse and Picasso as reflected in selected juxtapositions of each artist's works. These texts are accompanied by an introductory history, commentary on the public perception of important artistic relationships, and an extensive chronology.

Henri Matisse: The Oasis of Matisse

by Henri Matisse

This substantial new hardcover is published to accompany an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Readers are transported through the museum's Matisse works--an array of Eastern nudes, colorful fabrics, carpets, potted plants and idyllic landscapes--plus a selection of additional paintings, sculptures and works on paper by the French master.

At the heart of the exhibition is one of the most beloved works in the Stedelijk's collection: the monumental paper cut-out "The Parakeet and the Mermaid" (1952-53), presented with other Matisse cut-outs and rarely exhibited works in fabric and stained glass inspired by them. Arranged chronologically, the volume guides readers through Matisse's days in Paris, the birth of Fauvism, his representational work made in Nice, through to his work in Polynesia and Oceania.
The Oasis of Matisse portrays the artist's output using contextualization with works by his contemporaries, offering a comprehensive overview of his influences.
One of modern art's towering figures, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was a painter, draftsman, sculptor and printmaker before turning to paper cut-outs in the 1940s. From the clashing hues of his Fauvist works made in the South of France in 1904-5, to the harmonies of his Nice interiors from the 1920s, to this brilliant final chapter, Matisse followed a career-long path that he described as "construction by means of color."

Modern Art Despite Modernism

by Henri Matisse, Gerhard Richter, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Robert Storr, Ben Shahn, Salvador Dali, Georgia O'Keeffe, Glenn Lowry, Balthus, Giorgio De Chirico, Max Beckmann, Francesco Clemente, George Grosz, Glenn D. Lowry

Throughout the twentieth century, the evolution of mainstream Modernism in the arts has been shadowed and made complex by alternative expressions of a seemingly retrograde type, art that appears to set back the clock or to redirect the stream of progress. Modern Art Despite Modernism explores the anti-Modernist impulse in painting and sculpture through socio-cultural conflicts of the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Texts by Robert Storr advocate the strengths of this impulse in paintings and drawings by Otto Dix, Lucian Freud, Francesco Clemente and even Pablo Picasso--and note the enduring popularity of such artists as Pavel Tchelitchew, whose "Hide and Seek," along with Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World," remain among the public's favorite pictures. Storr also discusses taste and its implications, both part and present, for institutions like The Museum of Modern Art. This book was published as the second in a series of three titles, in conjunction with the millennial exhibitions schedule of MoMA2000 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Jazz

by Henri Matisse

This selection from Matisse’s masterpiece is available again to coincide with the major Cut-Outs exhibitions at The Tate and MoMA in 2014. Late in his life, confined to a chair or bed, Matisse transformed a simple technique into a medium for the creation of a major art. “I have attained a form filtered to its essentials.” Cutting dynamic shapes from painted paper, Matisse created his images. While producing pieces for Jazz, the artist used a large brush to write notes to himself on construction paper. The simple visual appearance of the words pleased Matisse, and he suggested using his reflective handwritten thoughts in juxtaposition with the images. The original edition of Jazz was an artist’s book, printed in a limited quantity. This selection from the original is an exquisite suite of color plates and text that, like the music it was named for, was invented in a spirit of improvisation and spontaneity. These magnificent cut-outs of pure color celebrate the radiance and emotional intensity of the artist’s oeuvre. Full color illustrations throughout

2017 Henri Matisse Wall Calendar

by Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse (French, 18691954), the supreme colorist of the twentieth century, studied at the École des Beaux-arts in Paris only to reject classical representation, relying instead on flat areas of vivid color and uneven smears of paint in his portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. From his sensational exhibition at the Paris Salon dAutomne of 1905 to his last creative outpouring of large-scale cutouts, Matisse has changed how we see the world.

Chatting with Henri Matisse The Lost 1941 Interview

by Henri Matisse

In 1941 the Swiss art critic Pierre Courthion interviewed Henri Matisse while the artist was in bed recovering from a serious operation. It was an extensive interview, seen at the time as a vital assessment of Matisse's career and set to be published by Albert Skira's then newly established Swiss press. After months of complicated discussions between Courthion and Matisse, and just weeks before the book was to come out--the artist even had approved the cover design--Matisse suddenly refused its publication. A typescript of the interview now resides in Courthion's papers at the Getty Research Institute.

This rich conversation, conducted during the Nazi occupation of France, is published for the first time in this volume, where it appears both in English translation and in the original French version. Matisse unravels memories of his youth and his life as a bohemian student in Gustave Moreau's atelier. He recounts his experience with collectors, including Albert C. Barnes. He discusses fame, writers, musicians, politicians, and, most fascinatingly, his travels. Chatting with Henri Matisse, introduced by Serge Guilbaut, contains a preface by Claude Duthuit, Matisse's grandson, and essays by Yve-Alain Bois and Laurence Bertrand Dorleac. The book includes unpublished correspondence and other original documents related to Courthion's interview and abounds with details about avant-garde life, tactics, and artistic creativity in the first half of the twentieth century.

Jazz Teriade Edition

by Henri Matisse

A new high quality, compact version of the original Teriade edition.

Late in his life, confined to a chair or bed, Matisse transformed a simple technique into a medium for the creation of a major art. “I have attained a form filtered to its essentials.” Cutting dynamic shapes from painted paper, Matisse created his images. While producing pieces for Jazz, the artist used a large brush to write notes to himself on construction paper. The simple visual appearance of the words pleased Matisse, and he suggested using his reflective handwritten thoughts in juxtaposition with the images. The original edition of Jazz was an artist’s book, printed in a limited quantity. This selection from the original is an exquisite suite of color plates and text that, like the music it was named for, was invented in a spirit of improvisation and spontaneity. These magnificent cut-outs of pure color celebrate the radiance and emotional intensity of the artist’s oeuvre. 

Wall Calendar 2026, Henri Matisse Art, 12 Months, Large Grid Design Featuring 12 Artworks

by Henri Matisse, Pomegranate

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