Henri Matisse View of Notre Dame Paris, quai Saint-Michel, spring 1914

  • MoMA, Floor 5, 506 The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries

Matisse made several views of the Notre-Dame cathedral from his Quai Saint-Michel studio on Paris’s Left Bank in 1914. His friend Marcel Sembat, a French politician, viewed this work and one other from the series. He considered this version “the more beautiful of the two, the more ingenious, the one in which Matisse is more personal,” but added that “no one would understand [it] immediately” because of its abstract character. 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 up an artwork.

Gallery label from 2022
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
58 x 37 1/8" (147.3 x 94.3 cm)
Credit
Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest (by exchange), 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
Object number
116.1975
Copyright
© 2023 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Department
Painting and Sculpture

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1914 - 1954 With the artist
1954 - 1958 Estate of the artist
1958 - 1975 Pierre Matisse, New York
1975 The Museum of Modern Art, New York

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