HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954) Apollinaire
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Apollinaire
signed with the artist's initials 'HM' (in cut paper, lower right)
cut paper laid down on gouache and pencil on paper laid down on a page from Florilège des Amours by Pierre de Ronsard
13 1/8 x 10 3/16 in (33.4 x 25.9 cm)
Executed between 1951-1952; this work is the maquette cover for the book Apollinaire by André Rouveyre, published in Paris in 1952
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Georges Matisse.
Provenance
Fernand Mourlot Collection, Paris (a gift from the artist in 1952).
Archives Mourlot, New York (by descent from the above in 1988).
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2014.
Exhibited
Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Musée Matisse, Matisse, la couleur découpée, une donation révélatrice, March 9 – June 9, 2013.
London, Tate Modern, Henri Matisse, The Cut-Outs, April 17 - September 7, 2014, no. 103 (later traveled to New York).
Literature
J. Cowart, J.D. Flam, D. Fourcade & J. Hallmark Neff, Henri Matisse, Paper Cut-Outs, exh. cat., St. Louis, 1977, no. 189 (illustrated p. 238).
C. Duthuit, Henri Matisse, Catalogue raisonné des ouvrages illustrés, Paris, 1988, no. 31 (the print version illustrated p. 253).
Exh. cat., Henri Matisse, The Cut-Outs, London, 2014, no. 103 (illustrated p. 190).
Exh. cat., Apollinaire, Le regard du poète, Paris, 2016, no. 3 (illustrated p. 10).
This striking example of Henri Matisse's cut-outs was designed and made for the slipcase of Apollinaire, a book by André Rouveyre, published in Paris in 1952 as a tribute to their mutual friend, Guillaume Apollinaire. Featured in the most comprehensive exhibition ever devoted to this innovative body of work, Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs at the Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art, this work is a prime example of Matisse's creative technique as well as a testament to the lasting friendship between Matisse, Rouveyre, and Apollinaire.
Matisse and Rouveyre became friends when they met in Gustave Moreau's art classes in 1896, a meeting that would continue as a lifelong friendship involving hundreds of letters of published correspondence and collaboration on multiple projects throughout their lives. The relationship between Matisse and Apollinaire proved more complex and fluctuating. Matisse most likely met the poet and budding art critic Apollinaire in 1906 at the apartment of Gertrude and Leo Stein in Montparnasse, a place each frequented alongside Pablo Picasso and other members of the Bateau-Lavoir and Montparnasse school that would take over the avant-garde scene of early twentieth century Paris. Matisse, the founder and champion of Fauvism, was the resident leader of the European avant-garde at this time. The bright colors and sinuous lines of the Fauves—a label given by critics which literally translates to "wild beasts"—laid in stark contrast to the controlled, muted palette of the Cubist movement developed by Picasso and Georges Braque. This movement would take over the avant-garde scene and even attract some of Matisse's s young followers such as André Derain.
Meanwhile, Apollinaire's close links with Cubism, which led to his eventual status as the commentator and promoter of the movement, dampened the relationship between him and Matisse. However, Apollinaire remained a staunch supporter of Matisse from 1907 until his death in 1918, consistently publishing a long series of newspaper and magazine articles endorsing and celebrating Matisse as the most important painter and sculptor exhibiting in major public exhibitions in Paris. This was an especially poignant testament to their friendship, as this sentiment was not shared with other critics at the time. In an essay based on recent conversations with Matisse in December of 1907, Apollinaire proclaims that Matisse combines "the most tender qualities of France: the strength and simplicity and the gentleness of her clarity" (quoted in J. Flam, Matisse on Art, Berkley & Los Angeles, 1995, p. 27). Their nuanced and somewhat volatile relationship would improve over the years; eventually, due to his admiration of Apollinaire's literary sensibility and his time spent serving in World War I, Apollinaire was invited to collaborate on the first-ever joint Matisse and Picasso exhibition, organized in January 1918 by the dealer Paul Guillaume.
The idea behind Apollinaire grew between Matisse and Rouveyre almost ten years before its publication in 1943. When Matisse was considering his contribution, he wrote to Rouveyre that they should include portraits of both men alongside Apollinaire, affirming their relationship and friendship (C. Duthuit-Garnaud, Henri Matisse Catalogue raisonné of the illustrated books, Paris, 1988, p. 251). This original idea came to fruition as an aquatint frontispiece designed by Matisse, representing the faces of the three men together. By the time they were ready to publish in 1951, Matisse had designed a cover with "Apollinaire" inscribed across and decorated with yellow gouache-painted cut paper. Dissatisfied with the printing of the yellow hues, Matisse designed a new cover that utilized a unique technique of his, cut-paper.
During the last decade of his life, Matisse took to painted paper as his preferred medium and scissors as his chief tool. This technique of cutting and layering pieces of gouache-covered paper resulted in an entirely new form called papier découpé, or cut-out. The process imparts a sculptural quality to the paper, a rare feat for a two-dimensional work. Apollinaire is a great example of Matisse's mastery of this technique. Matisse has taken the title "Apollinaire" and divided it into three lines of angular letters in varying shades of stark white, laid diagonally across the page, barely contained within the sheet, so the points of the 'E' and the 'N' protrude over the paper's edge. The text ends with Matisse's initials in the bottom right-hand corner which, like the rest of the work, is set against a brilliant blue, painted gouache background, producing a result that combines impact and immediacy.
In order to make his papiers découpés., Matisse had his assistants paint pure gouache colors onto large sheets of paper that he would then shape with scissors. He placed these cut parts onto the background sheet, arranging and rearranging their positions, pinning and re-pinning the pieces until he was pleased with the composition. Only at this point would the different elements be pasted into place. The artist famously defined this process as "carving into color;" for Matisse, cutting was not a simple technique but rather provided a system of thinking about and expanding the possibilities of shape. Distinguishing this operation from painting, Matisse explains:
"It is no longer the brush that slips and slides over the canvas, it is the scissors that cut into the paper and into the color. The conditions of the journey are 100 per cent different. The contour of the figure springs from the discovery of the scissors that give it the movement of circulating life. This tool doesn't modulate, it doesn't brush on, but it incises in, underline this well, because the criteria of observation will be different" (Matisse quoted in André Verdet, 'Les Papiers découpés', in Entretiens, notes et écrits sur la peinture, Paris, 1978, p. 130).
With Apollinaire, Matisse's draftsmanship is on clear display. The artist's workings are visible in pencil on the blue background, while in some parts of the lettering, small shards of paper are superimposed to create a layered relief. The "cut-out" is punctuated with tiny holes where pins held the various elements in place as Matisse experimented with layout. The large number of pinholes indeed bears witness to how painstakingly Matisse tested various compositional possibilities. He also made large-scale alterations, deciding at one point to cut around his initials, blue background and all, and move the whole section two centimeters to the right, further into the bottom-right corner. When Matisse needed an underlying support sheet on which to paste the final composition, he rummaged in his studio and retrieved a page from Pierre de Ronsard's Florilège des Amours, a book he had illustrated several years earlier, in 1948. As a result, the reverse of the present lot features the first verse of Ronsard's "Sonnet 101": Morne de corps, et plus morne d'espris Je me trainois dans une masse morte : Et sans sçavoir combien la Muse apporte D'honneur aux siens, je l'avois à mespris ("Dull in body, and more gloomy in spirit I dragged myself in a dead mass: And without knowing how much honor the Muse brings to her own, I despised her"). The left half of Ronsard's page is cut to the width of the spine and folded over along its crease so that it sits underneath Apollinaire. The artist then pasted a rectangle of bright yellow gouache onto the spine, creating a strong and joyful contrast with the blue on the front. By examining the separate elements of our cut-out and Matisse's subtle mark-making, we are thus able to trace the story of how he constructed this work, gaining valuable insights into his creative process and decision-making.
Designing the cut-out lettering on the slipcase, Matisse may well have intended to link Apollinaire with Apollo, the Greek god of poetry and music. The poet's solar and lyrical destiny was already inscribed in his original Polish name, which was Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky. Matisse chose the scale and position of the first six letters on the cut-out slipcase so that rather than "Apolli", they could be read as "Apollo". This tribute exemplifies how Matisse viewed the poet years later and showcases an expression of the artist's personal reconciliation with him. Additionally, in the portraits of the three men that make up the frontispiece, Matisse has synthesized the faces into masks, clustered and overlapping, so they appear inseparable. The individual identities of the three faces can be more clearly identified in preparatory versions...
Bid on this lot
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Apollinaire
signed with the artist's initials 'HM' (in cut paper, lower right)
cut paper laid down on gouache and pencil on paper laid down on a page from Florilège des Amours by Pierre de Ronsard
13 1/8 x 10 3/16 in (33.4 x 25.9 cm)
Executed between 1951-1952; this work is the maquette cover for the book Apollinaire by André Rouveyre, published in Paris in 1952
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Georges Matisse.
Provenance
Fernand Mourlot Collection, Paris (a gift from the artist in 1952).
Archives Mourlot, New York (by descent from the above in 1988).
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2014.
Exhibited
Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Musée Matisse, Matisse, la couleur découpée, une donation révélatrice, March 9 – June 9, 2013.
London, Tate Modern, Henri Matisse, The Cut-Outs, April 17 - September 7, 2014, no. 103 (later traveled to New York).
Literature
J. Cowart, J.D. Flam, D. Fourcade & J. Hallmark Neff, Henri Matisse, Paper Cut-Outs, exh. cat., St. Louis, 1977, no. 189 (illustrated p. 238).
C. Duthuit, Henri Matisse, Catalogue raisonné des ouvrages illustrés, Paris, 1988, no. 31 (the print version illustrated p. 253).
Exh. cat., Henri Matisse, The Cut-Outs, London, 2014, no. 103 (illustrated p. 190).
Exh. cat., Apollinaire, Le regard du poète, Paris, 2016, no. 3 (illustrated p. 10).
This striking example of Henri Matisse's cut-outs was designed and made for the slipcase of Apollinaire, a book by André Rouveyre, published in Paris in 1952 as a tribute to their mutual friend, Guillaume Apollinaire. Featured in the most comprehensive exhibition ever devoted to this innovative body of work, Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs at the Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art, this work is a prime example of Matisse's creative technique as well as a testament to the lasting friendship between Matisse, Rouveyre, and Apollinaire.
Matisse and Rouveyre became friends when they met in Gustave Moreau's art classes in 1896, a meeting that would continue as a lifelong friendship involving hundreds of letters of published correspondence and collaboration on multiple projects throughout their lives. The relationship between Matisse and Apollinaire proved more complex and fluctuating. Matisse most likely met the poet and budding art critic Apollinaire in 1906 at the apartment of Gertrude and Leo Stein in Montparnasse, a place each frequented alongside Pablo Picasso and other members of the Bateau-Lavoir and Montparnasse school that would take over the avant-garde scene of early twentieth century Paris. Matisse, the founder and champion of Fauvism, was the resident leader of the European avant-garde at this time. The bright colors and sinuous lines of the Fauves—a label given by critics which literally translates to "wild beasts"—laid in stark contrast to the controlled, muted palette of the Cubist movement developed by Picasso and Georges Braque. This movement would take over the avant-garde scene and even attract some of Matisse's s young followers such as André Derain.
Meanwhile, Apollinaire's close links with Cubism, which led to his eventual status as the commentator and promoter of the movement, dampened the relationship between him and Matisse. However, Apollinaire remained a staunch supporter of Matisse from 1907 until his death in 1918, consistently publishing a long series of newspaper and magazine articles endorsing and celebrating Matisse as the most important painter and sculptor exhibiting in major public exhibitions in Paris. This was an especially poignant testament to their friendship, as this sentiment was not shared with other critics at the time. In an essay based on recent conversations with Matisse in December of 1907, Apollinaire proclaims that Matisse combines "the most tender qualities of France: the strength and simplicity and the gentleness of her clarity" (quoted in J. Flam, Matisse on Art, Berkley & Los Angeles, 1995, p. 27). Their nuanced and somewhat volatile relationship would improve over the years; eventually, due to his admiration of Apollinaire's literary sensibility and his time spent serving in World War I, Apollinaire was invited to collaborate on the first-ever joint Matisse and Picasso exhibition, organized in January 1918 by the dealer Paul Guillaume.
The idea behind Apollinaire grew between Matisse and Rouveyre almost ten years before its publication in 1943. When Matisse was considering his contribution, he wrote to Rouveyre that they should include portraits of both men alongside Apollinaire, affirming their relationship and friendship (C. Duthuit-Garnaud, Henri Matisse Catalogue raisonné of the illustrated books, Paris, 1988, p. 251). This original idea came to fruition as an aquatint frontispiece designed by Matisse, representing the faces of the three men together. By the time they were ready to publish in 1951, Matisse had designed a cover with "Apollinaire" inscribed across and decorated with yellow gouache-painted cut paper. Dissatisfied with the printing of the yellow hues, Matisse designed a new cover that utilized a unique technique of his, cut-paper.
During the last decade of his life, Matisse took to painted paper as his preferred medium and scissors as his chief tool. This technique of cutting and layering pieces of gouache-covered paper resulted in an entirely new form called papier découpé, or cut-out. The process imparts a sculptural quality to the paper, a rare feat for a two-dimensional work. Apollinaire is a great example of Matisse's mastery of this technique. Matisse has taken the title "Apollinaire" and divided it into three lines of angular letters in varying shades of stark white, laid diagonally across the page, barely contained within the sheet, so the points of the 'E' and the 'N' protrude over the paper's edge. The text ends with Matisse's initials in the bottom right-hand corner which, like the rest of the work, is set against a brilliant blue, painted gouache background, producing a result that combines impact and immediacy.
In order to make his papiers découpés., Matisse had his assistants paint pure gouache colors onto large sheets of paper that he would then shape with scissors. He placed these cut parts onto the background sheet, arranging and rearranging their positions, pinning and re-pinning the pieces until he was pleased with the composition. Only at this point would the different elements be pasted into place. The artist famously defined this process as "carving into color;" for Matisse, cutting was not a simple technique but rather provided a system of thinking about and expanding the possibilities of shape. Distinguishing this operation from painting, Matisse explains:
"It is no longer the brush that slips and slides over the canvas, it is the scissors that cut into the paper and into the color. The conditions of the journey are 100 per cent different. The contour of the figure springs from the discovery of the scissors that give it the movement of circulating life. This tool doesn't modulate, it doesn't brush on, but it incises in, underline this well, because the criteria of observation will be different" (Matisse quoted in André Verdet, 'Les Papiers découpés', in Entretiens, notes et écrits sur la peinture, Paris, 1978, p. 130).
With Apollinaire, Matisse's draftsmanship is on clear display. The artist's workings are visible in pencil on the blue background, while in some parts of the lettering, small shards of paper are superimposed to create a layered relief. The "cut-out" is punctuated with tiny holes where pins held the various elements in place as Matisse experimented with layout. The large number of pinholes indeed bears witness to how painstakingly Matisse tested various compositional possibilities. He also made large-scale alterations, deciding at one point to cut around his initials, blue background and all, and move the whole section two centimeters to the right, further into the bottom-right corner. When Matisse needed an underlying support sheet on which to paste the final composition, he rummaged in his studio and retrieved a page from Pierre de Ronsard's Florilège des Amours, a book he had illustrated several years earlier, in 1948. As a result, the reverse of the present lot features the first verse of Ronsard's "Sonnet 101": Morne de corps, et plus morne d'espris Je me trainois dans une masse morte : Et sans sçavoir combien la Muse apporte D'honneur aux siens, je l'avois à mespris ("Dull in body, and more gloomy in spirit I dragged myself in a dead mass: And without knowing how much honor the Muse brings to her own, I despised her"). The left half of Ronsard's page is cut to the width of the spine and folded over along its crease so that it sits underneath Apollinaire. The artist then pasted a rectangle of bright yellow gouache onto the spine, creating a strong and joyful contrast with the blue on the front. By examining the separate elements of our cut-out and Matisse's subtle mark-making, we are thus able to trace the story of how he constructed this work, gaining valuable insights into his creative process and decision-making.
Designing the cut-out lettering on the slipcase, Matisse may well have intended to link Apollinaire with Apollo, the Greek god of poetry and music. The poet's solar and lyrical destiny was already inscribed in his original Polish name, which was Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky. Matisse chose the scale and position of the first six letters on the cut-out slipcase so that rather than "Apolli", they could be read as "Apollo". This tribute exemplifies how Matisse viewed the poet years later and showcases an expression of the artist's personal reconciliation with him. Additionally, in the portraits of the three men that make up the frontispiece, Matisse has synthesized the faces into masks, clustered and overlapping, so they appear inseparable. The individual identities of the three faces can be more clearly identified in preparatory versions...
