Archives - Fine Art: Page 30
Author: amparo enriquez (Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:41 pm)
Title: Matisse's "The Plum Blossoms"
The 1948 work, "The Plum Blossoms," is part of the last series of paintings created by Matisse before he died in 1954. It has not been on public view since 1970, when it was lent for an exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris. It was sold the same year to an unidentified collector.
Measuring nearly 3 by 4 feet, the painting depicts a woman, her face left blank and featureless, sitting at a table against a heavily saturated rust-red and ocher background, with a tall vase of blooming flowers dominating the foreground. It is among seven interiors that Matisse painted in 1947 and 1948 in his studio in Vence, in the south of France. As an ensemble, the canvases form a panorama of the artist's work environment in his final years.
This painting “The Plum Blossoms” was acquired recently by the Museum of Modern Art of New York which owns 58 paintings and sculptures and 35 drawings of Matisse work. A welcome news for all of us that are his fans.