THE COLLECTION
Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954)
View of Notre Dame
- Date:
- Paris, quai Saint-Michel, spring 1914
- Medium:
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions:
- 58 x 37 1/8" (147.3 x 94.3 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest, and the Henry Ittleson, A. Conger Goodyear, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Sinclair Funds, and the Anna Erickson Levene Bequest given in memory of her husband, Dr. Phoebus Aaron Theodor Levene
- MoMA Number:
- 116.1975
- Copyright:
- © 2013 Succession H. Matisse, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917
July 18–October 11, 2010
Matisse made several views of Notre Dame cathedral from his quai Saint-Michel studio in 1914. In February his friend Marcel Sembat wrote about two views the artist had completed, one "very beautiful", the other "lopsided", which "no one would understand immediately" but he preferred. Matisse reworked features of this canvas before covering almost the entire surface in blue. He left early compositional elements visible beneath the paint, accentuating the temporal quality of building a work of art over time.
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