Original color lithograph by Henri Matisse from the "The Last Works of Henri Matisse".  He made the series of "Cut-Outs", between 1950 - 1954 by painting gouache on paper and famously cut out shapes with scissors to make collages.  Matisse personally directed and supervised the first pulls in collaboration with the renowned lithography atelier Mourlot Frères of Paris and published by Tériade in 1958.  Matisse died before the work was published, and it then became a tribute to him.  Print size: 13 3/4 x 12 inches; sheet size: 14 x 20 3/4 inches.  Excellent condition; center fold as issued; verso titled.
 
Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was one of the most influential French artists of the 20th century and along with Pablo Picasso, was one of the pillars of the Parisian avant-garde.  He initially worked in law, but discovered a passion for art when he began painting as an amateur.  He went on to study traditional painting that he soon rejected.  Matisse’s use of vibrant color, inventive figuration, and decorative patterns helped redefine many of the formal tenets of painting, and along with Albert Marquet and André Derain, developed a radical method of using color to express light.  This anti-naturalistic style inspired the critical name "fauves," or "wild beasts," in what became known as Fauvism.  Ironically, Matisse often applied his modern style to traditional subjects such as still lifes, landscapes, and portraits. Such works express a sense of joy and stillness that runs counter to the frenetic works of many of his contemporaries: "what I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter."  Although primarily a painter, Matisse was also active as a sculptor and printmaker.  In the 1940s, in failing health, he completed a well-known group of cut-paper collages.