Henri Matisse (1869-1954) French, First Edition "Femme Bleu" Lithograph. Executed under the supervision of the artist. Comes with certificate of authenticity and prior sales records for provenance. 

Overall Size: 22 3/4 x 19 in. 

Sight Size: 13 1/4 x 9 1/2 in. 

Henri Émile Benoît Matisse was born on December 31, 1869, in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France, and began painting in 1889 while recovering from appendicitis, ultimately abandoning his law career to study at the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts. He shifted from traditional still lifes to brighter, more experimental work after his 1896 visit to John Russell, exposure to Impressionism, Manet, and Japanese art, and successful exhibitions with the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He continued evolving his style through travel to London and Corsica and collaborations with Albert Marquet and André Derain, even going into debt to collect art he admired, and supported his family through work as a draftsman, printmaker, and sculptor during the Humphrey Affair. After his wife left him in 1939 over his relationship with Lydia Delectorskaya, Matisse survived duodenal cancer surgery in 1941, fled to Nice during the Nazi invasion but stayed in France as a symbol of Resistance pride, and increasingly created his celebrated paper cut-outs as his health declined. Confined to a wheelchair by 1943 and questioned by the Gestapo because of his family’s Resistance activities, he spent his final years in Vence, helped establish a museum dedicated to his work in 1952, and died of a heart attack on November 3, 1954, acknowledged as one of the most important contributors to the European Modernist movement in his lifetime.

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