La Negresse, 1958 by Henri Matisse, a colour lithograph

La Negresse, 1958 by Henri Matisse (1869-1954), a colour lithograph on pale cream smooth wove paper based on the cut-paper maquette of the same title which Matisse began in late 1952 and completed in early 1953.  

Created and editioned at the Mourlot Studio, Paris 1954, under the supervision of Matisse who died in November 1954 before the magazine could be published.  This special edition of Verve was eventually issued by Teriade for Verve Magazine Volume IX, Nos 35 & 36 July 1958 under the title 'Dernieres Oeuvres de Matisse 1950-54. It included forty original lithographs of which this is one.

The printing of the lithographs in colour by Mourlot Freres and that of the photogravure reproductions and the typography by the master printers Drager Freres, was completed in Paris on 28 July 1958.

This image is usually considered to be based on Josephine Baker, an American-born French dancer who took Paris by storm in the 1920s and 30s.  Her most famous costume consisted of a beaded necklace and a skirt made of artificial bananas. which Matisse evokes in the orange form gathered around the figure's waist.  Baker's association with jazz music may also have been an inspiration.  The original maquette spread across two walls of Matisse's apartment at the Hotel Regina in Nice and was acquired by the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC in 1973.

It is mounted and presented in a sloped hand-painted in Little Greene's cape red with gloss and non-reflective glass.

Framed: 49 x 69 cm