Matisse Prints & Posters

Why Matisse Still Feels Modern

Fauvism: Colour Set Free

In 1905, Matisse and his friends shocked the Salon d’Automne in Paris with colours that ignored reality, and a critic called them the Fauves, the “wild beasts.” Woman with a Hat, the Portrait of Madame Matisse with its green stripe and Open Window, Collioure all come from that moment, when colour stopped describing things and started expressing them. Le bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life) followed a year later. Much of that colour came from Van Gogh, whose 1901 retrospective in Paris the young Fauves never forgot; see where it began in our Van Gogh prints and posters.

Interiors, Windows and Journeys

Over the following decades, Matisse kept returning to the same subjects: rooms full of pattern, open windows and the light of the places he travelled to, from Morocco to Nice and Tahiti. The Red Studio, The Piano Lesson, Le chat aux poissons rouges with its goldfish bowl, the Moroccan landscapes and the late Large Red Interior all show how he turned a room into a composition of flat, vivid colour.

Drawing with Scissors

After a major operation in 1941 left him unable to paint for long, Matisse made paper cut-outs his main medium, cutting shapes directly out of sheets painted with gouache. He called it drawing with scissors. Icarus from Jazz, Polynesia, the Sea, The Snail and the four Blue Nudes of 1952, sold individually or as a set, belong to this last period. As posters, their flat, simplified forms fit naturally into modern and minimalist interiors.

Paper, Frames and Delivery

Each Matisse print is reproduced on 200 g/m² FSC-certified matte paper, whose smooth, glare-free finish suits his flat areas of colour. Choose it unframed or in a black metal, white oak or natural oak frame: you only pay for the frame, the framing itself is free, and the print arrives ready to hang after an extra 2 to 4 business days. Custom sizes are available on request, and every order is printed by our partner nearest to you, in Europe, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.