Henri Matisse
Venus in a Shell I
1929
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Henri Matisse
Venus in a Shell I
1929
Physical Qualities
Bronze, 12 1/16 x 7 x 8 in. (30.6 x 17.8 x 20.3 cm.)
Credit Line
The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland
Object Number
1950.439
This stylized sculpture of a woman emerging from a shell was produced in Nice in 1930. Matisse first created a version of this bronze with the figure in a traditional supine position that was either lost or destroyed. He then changed the pose dramatically, making Venus rise powerfully from the smooth base, her straight back, arms, head, and neck merging to form an abstracted, refined figure. This commanding vertical pose of a female figure appears to be expanding upward and is reminiscent of the frontal position of the model in The Yellow Dress, also on display in this gallery. Both that painting and this sculpture, on which Matisse worked concurrently, signaled a new direction in his art.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1949; Etta Cone, Baltimore, by purchase, 1931; the artist, Paris
Matisse: Painter as Sculptor
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Cone Wing Rotations 2020
Cone Wing Rotations 2021
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Cone Wing Rotations 2023
Etta Cone, "The Cone Collection of Baltimore, Maryland" (Baltimore: 1934) pl. 123c.
'Cone Bequest,' "BMA News," Oct. 1949, p. 26, no. 126.
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., "Matisse: His Art and His Public," (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1951) 217-18, 461, 557.
"Handbook of the Cone Collection," (Baltimore: BMA, 1955) 45, no. 159.
"A Picture Book, Baltimore Museum of Art,(Baltimore: BMA, 1955) 63.
"Handbook of the Cone Collection, Revised Edition," (Baltimore: BMA, 1967) 54, no. 148.
Albert Elsen, 'The Sculpture of Matisse,' "Art Forum," vol. VII, #2, Oct. 1968, p. 22f.
Albert Elsen, "The Sculpture of Matisse," (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1972) 197-203.
Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, "The Sculpture of Henri Matisse," (London: The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1984) cat. # 65.
Monod-Fontaine, Isabelle. Matisse: Œuvres de Henri Matisse. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1989, page 226, fig. a (published as “Vénus à la coquille I”).
Senzoku, Nobuyuki, ed. Matisse and Modern Masters from the Cone Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art = Kon korekushon ten. [Tokyo]: "Kon Korekushon" Ten Katarogu Iinkai, 1996, page 123, no. 65.
Jack Flam, "Matisse in The Cone Collection The Poetics of Vision," Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2001, pl. 38, p. 86, ill.
Dorothy Kosinski, Jay McKean Fisher, Steven Nash, "Matisse: Painter as Sculptor," (Yale University Press: New Haven and London, 2007) cat. no. 123, p. 276, ill. pp. 245, 246, 248.
Cozzi, Leslie and Katherine Rothkopf (eds). "A Modern Influence: Henri Matisse, Etta Cone, and Baltimore." Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2021. ill.
Claude Duthuit and Wanda de Guébriant, "Henri Matisse: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre sculpté," Paris, Claude Duthuit (publisher), 1997, p. 222, cat. #79 (edition 3).
Inscribed: "HM 3/10"
Markings: "Cire - C. Valsuani- perdue"
