Staff Picks

“In a letter Matisse described this picture: "Through the window of the drawing room one sees the green of the garden and a black tree trunk, a basket of forget-me-nots on the table, a garden chair and a rug." Simple? Not really. Matisse flattened the parquet floor and turquoise walls into one unified line. Add the tilted table top and the skeletal chair, and you have a painting that carefully balances Matisse's desire to reproduce the world accurately in a harmonious two-dimensional painting. ”

Graham W. J. Beal, Director, President and CEO

D'Alessandro, Stephanie, and John Elderfield. "Matisse: Radical Invention 1913-1917," The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010, no. 37, pp. 270-273 (ill).

"100 Masterworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts," New York: Hudson Hills Press, Inc, 1985, p. 216, p. 217 (ill).

Minemura, T. "Matisse," Tokyo: Shinchosha, 1976, no. 19, (color pl.)

Carra, M. "Matisse," Milan: Rizzoli, 1971, no. 201, color pl 39, p. 94.

"Detroit Institute of Arts Illustrated Handbook," 1971, p. 169.

"The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism", vol. 22, no. 4, 1964, p. 406, fig. 7.

Barr, Alfred H., Jr. "Matisse, His Art and His Public," New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1951, p. 190, 411, 558, (ill).

Richardson, E. P. "20th Century Painting," Detroit Institute of Arts, 1943, fig. 4.

Valentiner, William R. "Expressionism and Abstract Painting", Art Quarterly, Summer 1941.

Barnes and DeMazia. "The Art of Henri Matisse", New York and London: Charles Scribner's Sons & Co., Inc., 1933, no. 61, p.269 (ill).

Barr, Alfred H., Jr. "Henri Matisse", Museum of Modern Art, New York; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, 1931, no 37.

McBride, H. "Matisse", New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930, pl 39.

Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, vol. 5, no. 1, 1923, p. 4-5, (ill).

"Exhibition of Impressionist and Post-impressionist Paintings", Museum of Modern Art, New York, May 3-Sept. 15, 1921, Cat. 71, p.17.