Henri Matisse 1869-1954

Aquatint printed in colours, 1935-36, signed in pencil, numbered 4/5 and inscribed epreuve d'artiste (aside from the edition of 50), dedicated à Georges Marcel Burgun cordialment Henri Matisse, on wove paper, with full margins, a deckle edge at four sides, in good condition apart from the pink somewhat attenuated, minor light-staining, occasional pale scattered foxing mostly in margins, a diagonal broken crease in the lower right corner of image, minor backboard-staining

In 1931 Dr Albert Barnes commissioned Matisse to paint a mural to decorate three lunettes in the main gallery of the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania. The present work derives from the gouache maquette for the first scheme of this commission which was never installed.  Matisse had worked on the scheme for over a year before he discovered that he had been given the wrong dimensions for the space and subsequently the maquette was found rolled in his studio in the 1980s. The second altered version hangs in the Barnes Foundation whilst the original maquette is now housed in the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.  The composition for La Danse reflects the dancing figures and harmonious colouring of the Joy of Life of 1905-6, which was purchased by Dr Barnes in 1922.