HENRI MATISSE

Art

 

Colour lithographs of the gouache cut-outs by Henri Matisse
Dernières Oeuvres de Matisse 1950 -1954, Verve IX Nos. 35 & 36
The first lithography plates were printed under Matisse’s supervision in 1954.
Lithography by Mourlot Frères, printed 1958.

It is our belief that the same process and working methods were used for the Verve 35 & 36 lithographs as were used to produce the Jazz lithographs. The quotes below by Henri Matisse are from Jazz.

WORKING METHODS
He would cut the shapes out, generally freehand, using a small pair of scissors and saving both the item cut out and remaining scraps of paper. With the help of Lydia Delectorskaya, his secretary and nurse, Matisse would arrange and rearrange the coloured elements until he was satisfied that the resulting collages were perfect. It took two years to complete the twenty collages and, after years of trial and error, a practical and appropriate method was agreed upon for bringing the collages to life as two-dimensional works.

From the beginning, Tériade was a collaborator on Jazz because of his desire to create a "livre-fleur." He described how, "this old project keeps me from sleeping: the modern "illustrated manuscript." Initially Matisse had used the Linel brand of gouache paint because of its brilliance and depth of pigment. He was also advised that Linel paints in particular could be keyed to corresponding colours of printing inks.

Tériade told Matisse to "use all the gouache colours that you can imagine, and that Madame Lydia can prepare for you. I guarantee that we will obtain in the print, the exact colour. From the moment that the print is in the plates, there will be nothing to fear, one will always be able to find the exact colour, especially when the printing of each colour is different."

Tériade met with the printers and then described in a letter to Matisse, "I wanted to personally give them the two plates and explain to them your desires. They understood the importance of the book. They are enthusiastic, and I believe that they will do the impossible to arrive at perfection... Because the printing inks are oily, they cannot give exactly the quality of gouache. My printers are studying the possibility of how to render the original colours, and they envision printing with colours specially prepared by Linel. If this succeeds, we will arrive at perfection. This will be extremely difficult, but I strongly believe that we will achieve it."

Yet Matisse was still worried, and feared that certain colours wouldn't come out in the same brilliance of the original. Tériade continued his trials in order to select the best process for reproduction. "I promise you that we will have the trials in three procedures, the only possible ones for this exceptional work in Linel colours and in German typographic colours, near the end of February. Don't think that the trials will be easy. With the Linel colours, for example, it is not only a question of putting them under the press. Many problems present themselves with respect to their fluidity, as they are very sensitive to pressure. It's even necessary to make special rubber ink rollers. There is much work to be done at the laboratory before making the first proof. I hope that all these studies will help us determine the best process to use."

MATERIALS AND PROCESSES
In the end, no available inks proved satisfactory to the artist for translating the clarity of the colour and the direct handling of the physical texture which Matisse and his publisher required. Additionally, several different methods of printing, including lithography, linoleum block printing, woodblock and even zinc block printing were considered, attempted and rejected before settling on pochoir. A very refined method of hand-stencilling, pochoir had previously been used by such artists as Man Ray, Sonia Delauney and Mary Cassatt and more recently by Helen Frankenthaler.

Matisse had enjoyed using the particularly bright gouache paint made by Linel and used it exclusively to colour the papers he used in his cut-outs. The stroke of genius behind using pochoir to translate the Jazz cut-outs was that the two-dimensional images could be produced using the same brilliant paint as in the collages. By directly brushing the Linel gouache through hand-cut stencils Tériade's printers were able to give the Jazz stencils a directness and richness similar to what the artist had achieved in his collaged maquettes. The stencils were cut by hand from thin sheets of metal, probably brass or copper.

Tériade changed the printers he used for the Verve lithographs from the ones he used for Jazz, I have included a quote from Fernand Mourlot about Matisse’s exacting requirements. It was Matisse’s daughter who oversaw the final printing of the lithographs in Verve 35 & 36 and it is said that the printers were more frightened of her than they were of any of the artists. Madame Duthuit-Matisse often dealt with the printers of all of Matisse’s printing because he was invalided and lived in Nice and the printers were situated in Paris. Matisse trusted his daughter explicitly to make sure that the quality of the work was supreme. Very often when printers worked on Matisse’s prints they were pushed so far to obtain perfection that they invented new processes.

..." For the international exhibition l'Art Indépendant at the Petit Palais, 1937, an important presentation of modern art masterpieces was organized by Raymond Escholier, the museum curator. He offered me the task of printing the two posters that would publicize this prestigious occasion. The first poster to be chosen was a large painting by Pierre Bonnard entitled Petit Déjeuner. I asked the artist if he would care to assist me in the reproduction of his work. I was later pleased to learn that he was very satisfied with the result.
The second choice was Le Rève, a painting by Matisse. It was then that I first met him. Wanting to make a good reproduction - the painting was very delicate to reproduce, I asked Henri Matisse if he would see me. What a character! He was nothing like Picasso or Derain....with them, you could always joke a bit. But Matisse maintained a certain distance between himself and the person he spoke with. For this reason I addressed him, from the start and all throughout our relationship, as "monsieur Matisse," and he addressed me as "monsieur Mourlot."
He was very cordial at our meeting. You will make a beautiful poster. Have you seen the painting? I think it will be fairly difficult to reproduce because there are certain nuances that must be respected....
I brought him a mock-up of the poster with the text. He started, of course, by discussing the letters, then he said: You can't put colours in the letters - make them black. Look, this letter here is a bit too large. I'd like to see the proofs because I'm fairly meticulous and it is important to me to have a nice poster.
Almost every day I brought him a different proof, and we discussed them together. At that time he lived on the Boulevard du Montparnasse, near the observatory. When we'd reached a certain point, he said to me:  Bring me back the painting, now we'll work on your lithograph and do something different. Let's get away from painting and make a good image.
The colourist went back to work; it must be pointed out that colour photography hadn't been perfected yet. Carried out by hand by gifted specialists, hand-colouring was superior to photo-mechanical techniques. The result was excellent and when the poster was finished, Henri Matisse said to me:
I am satisfied, and I am certain that we shall see each other again"....Fernand Mourlot, from Souvenirs et portraits d'artistes, A-C Mazo publisher, 1973 et A Même la Pierre, Pierre Bordas & Fils, 1982

 

 

 

La Dance

Lithograph - Matisse painted for Verve a replica of his large painting La Danse, Verve No. 4, 34 x 38.5 cm, 1938

$4,000