GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In 1952 Henri Matisse was asked to create a stained-glass window for the mausoleum of art collector Albert Lasker, and he took on the project with enthusiasm. This maquette, Matisse's design for the commission, creates a sense of everlasting life through its exuberance and especially through the vine motif, a symbol for growth.
For Matisse the work was a personal victory over the adversity of failing eyesight. Assistants provided him with stacks of paper densely painted with gouache. He cut the forms with scissors, thereafter orchestrating color shapes into a composition that integrated the negative space of the background. With this pasted paper technique, the stroke of pen or brush is replaced by the cut of the scissors, allowing for an immediate coordination of mind, eye, and hand. Each leaf and flower—or “sign” of leaf or flower, for these shapes are elegant distillations from reality—is charged with a physicality derived from Matisse’s powerfully intuitive gesture.
Using this technique, Matisse created compositions for other commissions that were eventually carried out in different media (as here, in stained glass). It was at this time that Matisse created his famous designs for tiles, windows, and vestments for the Dominican Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, a village in the south of France. Matisse was the brilliant colorist, the master of line, the determined sculptor. His pasted paper compositions unite all these aspects of his career.
Adapted from
- Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 279.
- Dorothy Kosinski, "Ivy in Flower," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Suzanne Kotz (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 136.
NOTES
Look for DMFA Lasker Collection exhibition, March 6 to March 29, 1953- part of DMFA 50th anniversary celebration. Text from DMA 100 Years, pamphlet 21: "The exhibition of paitnigns from the Lasker COllection was part of the Museum's 50th birthday celebration. The Lasker collection included nine works by Matisse, as well as van Gogh's famous painting Vase of Roses, not in the Annenberg Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York."
exhibition id:
Piction UMO for the catalogue?
“It is such a consolation for me to have achieved this at the end of my life.”
— Letters from Henri Matisse to his son Pierre Matisse, November 12, 1952
For Henri Matisse, one of the preeminent artists of the twentieth century, color and line were very important concepts. During most of his life, Matisse worked in many media, including drawing, painting, and sculpture. In his old age, with failing health, Matisse embraced techniques that would allow him to maintain the all-important vitality of his color and line. One of these techniques was paper cutouts. Cutting directly into painted paper with scissors, Matisse was able to continue the vibrancy of his color and line.
“To cut freely into a color reminds me of direct carving by sculptors.”
— Henri Matisse, Jazz, 1947
Ivy in Flower was a maquette, or model, for a stained glass window for Albert D. Lasker’s mausoleum.
• Late in his life, Matisse made this comment.
“To paint an autumn landscape I will not try to remember what colors suit this season, I will be inspired only by the sensation that the season gives me.”
— A. H. Barr, Matisse: His Art and His Public, 1951
INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTWORK:
The exuberance of the pattern of leaves and flowers in Matisse’s Ivy in Flower is held in check by its grid of nine paper “panels.” The composition is a maquette for a stained glass window intended for the mausoleum of Albert Lasker, which accounts for the structure, and especially for the vine motif, a symbol of eternal life. The work is, however, neither anecdotal nor descriptive, and if it carries a message of everlasting life, it is through a radiance suggesting an inner light.
For Matisse the work was a personal victory over the adversity of failing eyesight. Assistants provided him with stacks of paper densely painted with gouache. He cut the forms with scissors, thereafter orchestrating color shapes into a composition that integrated the negative space of the background. With this pasted paper technique, the stroke of pen or brush is replaced by the cut of the scissors, allowing for an immediate coordination of mind, eye, and hand. Each leaf and flower—or “sign” of leaf or flower, for these shapes are elegant distillations from reality—is charged with a physicality derived from Matisse’s powerfully intuitive gesture. Using this technique, Matisse created compositions for commissions that were eventually carried out in different media (as here, in stained glass). It was at this time that Matisse created his famous designs for tiles, windows, and vestments for the Dominican Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence in the south of France. Matisse was the brilliant colorist, the master of line, the determined sculptor. His pasted paper compositions unite all these aspects of his career.
Dorothy Kosinski, "Ivy in Flower", in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Suzanne Kotz (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 136.
The glass version of Henri Matisse's Ivy in Flower, fabricated by Paul Bony in France two years after Matisse's death, is now in the collection of The Modern Art Museum of Vienna. (illustrated in pamphlet #21 from DMA 100 Years)
http://www.musee-matisse-nice.org/expositions/chapelle_2001.html
From European masterowrks teaching packet, page 26-27.
The exuberance of the pattern of leaves and flowers in Matisse’s Ivy in Flower is held in check by its grid of nine paper “panels.” The composition is a maquette for a stained glass window intended for the mausoleum of Albert Lasker, which accounts for the structure, and especially for the vine motif, a symbol of eternal life. The work is, however, neither anecdotal nor descriptive, and if it carries a message of everlasting life, it is through a radiance suggesting an inner light.
For Matisse the work was a personal victory over the adversity of failing eyesight. Assistants provided him with stacks of paper densely painted with gouache. He cut the forms with scissors, thereafter orchestrating color shapes into a composition that integrated the negative space of the background. With this pasted paper technique, the stroke of pen or brush is replaced by the cut of the scissors, allowing for an immediate coordination of mind, eye, and hand. Each leaf and flower—or “sign” of leaf or flower, for these shapes are elegant distillations from reality—is charged with a physicality derived from Matisse’s powerfully intuitive gesture. Using this technique, Matisse created compositions for commissions that were eventually carried out in different media (as here, in stained glass). It was at this time that Matisse created his famous designs for tiles, windows, and vestments for the Dominican Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence in the south of France. Matisse was the brilliant colorist, the master of line, the determined sculptor. His pasted paper compositions unite all these aspects of his career.
Dorothy Kosinski, "Ivy in Flower", in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Suzanne Kotz (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 136.
Note: Moved EAS's notes from general description into notes field in order to finalize
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
1953-1958: Mary Lasker, New York, commissioned from the artist
1958-1963: Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, gift of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation [1]
From 1963: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Foundation for the Arts Collection [2], [3], [4]
The main source for this provenance is the research document compiled by Emily Vokt of the Dallas Museum of Art in 2000, and revised in 2009 by Veronica Treviño of the Dallas Museum of Art, copy in Collections Records object file. Exceptions and supporting documentation are noted.
[1] Mary Lasker commissioned the work. She intended to have the design translated into stained glass for the Lasker family mausoleum, in honor of the death of Albert Lasker (1880-1952). However, she rejected the commission and instead lent the piece to the Art Institute of Chicago until donating it to the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts in 1958.
[2] Pursuant to the April 19, 1963 Agreement of Merger between the Dallas Association and the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts (DMCA), the collection of the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts was transferred to the Foundation for the Arts.
[3] The Foundation for the Arts is a non-profit corporation created as a title-holding entity to serve the people of Dallas but to operate independently of the City. The Dallas Museum of Art (at its own cost) is responsible for the care, storage, insurance, conservation, and maintenance of the collection, and agrees to maintain the highest museum standards in the management and handling of the Foundation's collection. The title to all works of art purchased or otherwise acquired by the Foundation for the Arts is retained by the Foundation.
[4] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
Audio on Piction-- Biography of Matisse by Hillary Spurling- Clip from Icons of the Collection: Matisse
13315295: UMO
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- MoMA~Learn more about Matisse's work in cut paper.
- MoMA~Check out a brief biography of the artist.
- Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna~See Ivy in Flower as a stained-glass window.
- Dallas Museum of Art~See press information related to the exhibition of Ivy in Flower at the Dallas Museum of Art in 2011.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1963.68.FA
Category
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General Description
In 1952 Henri Matisse was asked to create a stained-glass window for the mausoleum of art collector Albert Lasker, and he took on the project with enthusiasm. This maquette, Matisse's design for the commission, creates a sense of everlasting life through its exuberance and especially through the vine motif, a symbol for growth.
For Matisse the work was a personal victory over the adversity of failing eyesight. Assistants provided him with stacks of paper densely painted with gouache. He cut the forms with scissors, thereafter orchestrating color shapes into a composition that integrated the negative space of the background. With this pasted paper technique, the stroke of pen or brush is replaced by the cut of the scissors, allowing for an immediate coordination of mind, eye, and hand. Each leaf and flower—or “sign” of leaf or flower, for these shapes are elegant distillations from reality—is charged with a physicality derived from Matisse’s powerfully intuitive gesture.
Using this technique, Matisse created compositions for other commissions that were eventually carried out in different media (as here, in stained glass). It was at this time that Matisse created his famous designs for tiles, windows, and vestments for the Dominican Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, a village in the south of France. Matisse was the brilliant colorist, the master of line, the determined sculptor. His pasted paper compositions unite all these aspects of his career.
Adapted from
- Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 279.
- Dorothy Kosinski, "Ivy in Flower," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Suzanne Kotz (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 136.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- MoMA~Learn more about Matisse's work in cut paper.
- MoMA~Check out a brief biography of the artist.
- Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna~See Ivy in Flower as a stained-glass window.
- Dallas Museum of Art~See press information related to the exhibition of Ivy in Flower at the Dallas Museum of Art in 2011.
Notes
Look for DMFA Lasker Collection exhibition, March 6 to March 29, 1953- part of DMFA 50th anniversary celebration. Text from DMA 100 Years, pamphlet 21: "The exhibition of paitnigns from the Lasker COllection was part of the Museum's 50th birthday celebration. The Lasker collection included nine works by Matisse, as well as van Gogh's famous painting Vase of Roses, not in the Annenberg Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York."
exhibition id:
Piction UMO for the catalogue?
“It is such a consolation for me to have achieved this at the end of my life.”
— Letters from Henri Matisse to his son Pierre Matisse, November 12, 1952
For Henri Matisse, one of the preeminent artists of the twentieth century, color and line were very important concepts. During most of his life, Matisse worked in many media, including drawing, painting, and sculpture. In his old age, with failing health, Matisse embraced techniques that would allow him to maintain the all-important vitality of his color and line. One of these techniques was paper cutouts. Cutting directly into painted paper with scissors, Matisse was able to continue the vibrancy of his color and line.
“To cut freely into a color reminds me of direct carving by sculptors.”
— Henri Matisse, Jazz, 1947
Ivy in Flower was a maquette, or model, for a stained glass window for Albert D. Lasker’s mausoleum.
• Late in his life, Matisse made this comment.
“To paint an autumn landscape I will not try to remember what colors suit this season, I will be inspired only by the sensation that the season gives me.”
— A. H. Barr, Matisse: His Art and His Public, 1951
INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTWORK:
The exuberance of the pattern of leaves and flowers in Matisse’s Ivy in Flower is held in check by its grid of nine paper “panels.” The composition is a maquette for a stained glass window intended for the mausoleum of Albert Lasker, which accounts for the structure, and especially for the vine motif, a symbol of eternal life. The work is, however, neither anecdotal nor descriptive, and if it carries a message of everlasting life, it is through a radiance suggesting an inner light.
For Matisse the work was a personal victory over the adversity of failing eyesight. Assistants provided him with stacks of paper densely painted with gouache. He cut the forms with scissors, thereafter orchestrating color shapes into a composition that integrated the negative space of the background. With this pasted paper technique, the stroke of pen or brush is replaced by the cut of the scissors, allowing for an immediate coordination of mind, eye, and hand. Each leaf and flower—or “sign” of leaf or flower, for these shapes are elegant distillations from reality—is charged with a physicality derived from Matisse’s powerfully intuitive gesture. Using this technique, Matisse created compositions for commissions that were eventually carried out in different media (as here, in stained glass). It was at this time that Matisse created his famous designs for tiles, windows, and vestments for the Dominican Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence in the south of France. Matisse was the brilliant colorist, the master of line, the determined sculptor. His pasted paper compositions unite all these aspects of his career.
Dorothy Kosinski, "Ivy in Flower", in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Suzanne Kotz (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 136.
The glass version of Henri Matisse's Ivy in Flower, fabricated by Paul Bony in France two years after Matisse's death, is now in the collection of The Modern Art Museum of Vienna. (illustrated in pamphlet #21 from DMA 100 Years)
http://www.musee-matisse-nice.org/expositions/chapelle_2001.html
From European masterowrks teaching packet, page 26-27.
The exuberance of the pattern of leaves and flowers in Matisse’s Ivy in Flower is held in check by its grid of nine paper “panels.” The composition is a maquette for a stained glass window intended for the mausoleum of Albert Lasker, which accounts for the structure, and especially for the vine motif, a symbol of eternal life. The work is, however, neither anecdotal nor descriptive, and if it carries a message of everlasting life, it is through a radiance suggesting an inner light.
For Matisse the work was a personal victory over the adversity of failing eyesight. Assistants provided him with stacks of paper densely painted with gouache. He cut the forms with scissors, thereafter orchestrating color shapes into a composition that integrated the negative space of the background. With this pasted paper technique, the stroke of pen or brush is replaced by the cut of the scissors, allowing for an immediate coordination of mind, eye, and hand. Each leaf and flower—or “sign” of leaf or flower, for these shapes are elegant distillations from reality—is charged with a physicality derived from Matisse’s powerfully intuitive gesture. Using this technique, Matisse created compositions for commissions that were eventually carried out in different media (as here, in stained glass). It was at this time that Matisse created his famous designs for tiles, windows, and vestments for the Dominican Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence in the south of France. Matisse was the brilliant colorist, the master of line, the determined sculptor. His pasted paper compositions unite all these aspects of his career.
Dorothy Kosinski, "Ivy in Flower", in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Suzanne Kotz (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 136.
Note: Moved EAS's notes from general description into notes field in order to finalize
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
1953-1958: Mary Lasker, New York, commissioned from the artist
1958-1963: Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, gift of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation [1]
From 1963: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Foundation for the Arts Collection [2], [3], [4]
The main source for this provenance is the research document compiled by Emily Vokt of the Dallas Museum of Art in 2000, and revised in 2009 by Veronica Treviño of the Dallas Museum of Art, copy in Collections Records object file. Exceptions and supporting documentation are noted.
[1] Mary Lasker commissioned the work. She intended to have the design translated into stained glass for the Lasker family mausoleum, in honor of the death of Albert Lasker (1880-1952). However, she rejected the commission and instead lent the piece to the Art Institute of Chicago until donating it to the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts in 1958.
[2] Pursuant to the April 19, 1963 Agreement of Merger between the Dallas Association and the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts (DMCA), the collection of the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts was transferred to the Foundation for the Arts.
[3] The Foundation for the Arts is a non-profit corporation created as a title-holding entity to serve the people of Dallas but to operate independently of the City. The Dallas Museum of Art (at its own cost) is responsible for the care, storage, insurance, conservation, and maintenance of the collection, and agrees to maintain the highest museum standards in the management and handling of the Foundation's collection. The title to all works of art purchased or otherwise acquired by the Foundation for the Arts is retained by the Foundation.
[4] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
Audio on Piction-- Biography of Matisse by Hillary Spurling- Clip from Icons of the Collection: Matisse
13315295: UMO
VIDEO ASSETS
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