Henri Matisse
The Dance
1935-1936
Scroll
Henri Matisse
The Dance
1935-1936
Physical Qualities
Color etching and aquatint, Sheet: 236 × 741 mm. (9 5/16 × 29 3/16 in.)
Mat: 25 × 40 3/16 in. (63.5 × 102 cm.)
Credit Line
The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland
Object Number
1950.12.940
The dancing figures in this image are repeated in the remarques, or marginalia, that embellish portions of the working maquette. Matisse produced this print following a complicated episode involving famed collector Albert C. Barnes of Pennsylvania. In 1930, Matisse agreed to produce a mural for the mansion that housed Barnes’ vast personal collection. Due to a mistake in measurement, his first version of the mural was unusable. He tried to persuade Etta Cone to purchase it for an eventual “Matisse Museum” in Baltimore, but she declined. He may have produced this print in order to publicize the first mural’s existence and find a buyer for the work, now in the collection of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Purchased 1936, Artist, Paris
Purchased by Etta Cone from the artist, June 1936, per inventories at Archives Matisse
Purchased by Etta Cone from the artist, June 1936, per inventories at Archives Matisse
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Matisse, Picasso and Friends: Masterworks on Paper from The Cone Collection," 7 June - 27 August, 1995.
Jay Fisher, "Matisse, Picasso and Friends: Masterworks on Paper from the Cone Collection," The Cleveland Museum of Art, 17 November, 1996 - 19 January, 1997; Seattle Art Museum 20 February - 20 April, 1997; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 18 May - 13 July, 1997.
Dorothy Kosinski, Jay McKean Fisher, Steven Nash; BMA, Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center, "Matisse: Painter as Sculptor," Dallas, January 21 - April 29, 2007; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, June 9 - September 16, 2007; The Baltimore Museum of Art, October 28, 2007- February 3, 2008 (shown BMA only).
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Matisse's Dancers," 14 November 2012 - 24 February 2013.
Katy Rothkopf and Leslie Cozzi, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "A Modern Influence: Henry Matisse, Etta Cone, and Baltimore," October 3, 2021 - January 2, 2022.
Jay Fisher, "Matisse, Picasso and Friends: Masterworks on Paper from the Cone Collection," The Cleveland Museum of Art, 17 November, 1996 - 19 January, 1997; Seattle Art Museum 20 February - 20 April, 1997; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 18 May - 13 July, 1997.
Dorothy Kosinski, Jay McKean Fisher, Steven Nash; BMA, Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center, "Matisse: Painter as Sculptor," Dallas, January 21 - April 29, 2007; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, June 9 - September 16, 2007; The Baltimore Museum of Art, October 28, 2007- February 3, 2008 (shown BMA only).
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Matisse's Dancers," 14 November 2012 - 24 February 2013.
Katy Rothkopf and Leslie Cozzi, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "A Modern Influence: Henry Matisse, Etta Cone, and Baltimore," October 3, 2021 - January 2, 2022.
Hahnloser-Ingold, Margrit. Matisse: The Graphic Work. New York: Rizzoli, 1988, p. 132, no. 63 (published as “Dance”).
Cozzi, Leslie and Katherine Rothkopf (eds). "A Modern Influence: Henri Matisse, Etta Cone, and Baltimore." Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2021. ill.
Signed: Printed from 4 plates: black, grey, pink, blue
Inscribed: lower right in graphite: "Henri Matisse 23/50"
