Description
Discover and celebrate a decade of exploration and renewal in the work of Henri Matisse with our museum exclusive collection of puzzles made just for the exhibit.
By 1930, Henri Matisse had achieved significant international renown, yet he found himself in a deep creative slump. The turning point came in the fall of that year with a commission to decorate the main gallery of the Barnes Foundation, then located in a suburb of Philadelphia. The resulting monumental mural, The Dance (1930–33), turned Matisse’s artistic practice around.
Matisse in the 1930s explores changes in the artist’s work across multiple formats, including easel and decorative painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, and the illustrated book. The exhibition also addresses the methods of working that renewed Matisse’s style, as well as his modern renderings of mythological themes from antiquity, his depictions of female models in the studio, and his partnership with his studio manager and model, Lydia Delectorskaya.
The model for this composition was Lydia Delectorskaya, a beautiful young Russian émigré who worked closely with Henri Matisse during the last twenty years of his life. Delectorskaya designed the dress shown here after Matisse purchased the sumptuous violet-blue fabric in Paris. The resulting concoction, held together by loose stitches and pins, was intended only for use in the artist's studio and appears in several of his paintings of this period. Matisse's lifelong love of fabric can be traced back to his childhood in Bohain-en-Vermandois, an industrial town in northeastern France, which was at that time an important center for the textile industry.
- Museum exclusive
- 1000 Pieces
- 100% recycled mixed paper and corrugated cardboard
- Puzzle measures 19.25 x 26.625 inches when completed
- Box measures 10 x 8 x 2.25 inches
- Each piece measures approximately 1 x 1.5 inches
- Made in the USA
- Ages 3+
- WARNING: Small Parts pose a choking hazard for children under 3 years of age
