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Bowl of Apples on a Table
Artist:
Henri Matisse
(French, 1869-1954)
Date: 1916
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
45 1/4 × 35 1/4 in. (114.9 × 89.5 cm)
Overall, Frame: 57 1/4 × 46 1/2 × 4 1/2 in. (145.4 × 118.1 × 11.4 cm)
Classification: Modern art
Credit Line: Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Copyright: © Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Object number: 71.515
Terms
- Fruit
- Still life
- Black
- Yellow
- Pink
- Light green
- Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
In Collection(s)
On view
DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas still life painting of a bowl of apples on a pedestal. The pedestal is tipped forward, giving a completely flattened look to the painting. It has bright, vibrant colors with heavy black outlining.
Exhibition History"Twenty Paintings by Henri Matisse," Valentine Galleries, New York, Nov. 28 - Dec. 17, 1936. (Exhib. cat. no. 1).
"Selected Exhibition of the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Collection," Detroit Institute of Arts, Oct. 5 - 31, 1937. (Exhib. cat. no. 39).
"Picasso and Matisse," Boston Institute of Modern Art, Oct. 19 - Nov. 11, 1938. (Exhib. cat. no. 28).
"Paintings by Henri Matisse," Arts Club of Chicago, March 30 - April 18, 1939. (Exhib. cat. no. 3).
"Seven Centuries of Painting," California Palace of the Legion of Honor and M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, Dec. 29, 1939 - Jan. 28, 1940. (Exhib. cat. no. Y-186).
"Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Jan. 16 - May 11, 1941. (Exhib. cat. no. 121).
"Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown Inaugural Exhibition," Provincetown, Massachusetts,1958. (Exhib. cat. no. 41).
"French Paintings 1789-1929 from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Dayton Art Institute, March 25 - May 22, 1960. (Exhib. cat. no. 116).
"The Controversial Century 1850-1950," Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts, and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1962. (Exhib. cat. not paged).
"Henri Matisse, Exposition du Centenaire," Grand Palais, Paris, April - Sept. 1970. (Exhib. cat. no. 142).
"Henri Matisse," Acquavella Galleries, New York, Nov. 2 - Dec. 1, 1973. (Exhib. cat. no. 11).
"Homage to the Louvre," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, May - Sept., 1976.
"Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, June 12 - Sept. 5, 1977. (Exhib. cat. no. 49).
"Veronese to Franz Kline: Masterworks from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk," for the benefit of The Chrysler Museum Art Reference Library, Wildenstein & Co., New York, N. Y., April 13 - May 13, 1978. (Exhib. cat. no. 29).
"Henri Matisse Sculptor/Painter," Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, May 26 - Sept. 2, 1984. (Exhib. cat. no. 31).
"French Paintings from The Chrysler Museum," North Carolina Museum of Art, May 31 - Sept. 14, 1986; Birmingham Museum of Art, Nov. 6, 1986 - Jan. 18, 1987.
"Henri Matisse: A Retrospective," Museum of Modern Art, New York, Sept. 16, 1992 - Jan. 12, 1993.
"Cézanne and Beyond," Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennslyvania, February 26, 2009 - May 31, 2009.
"Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917," Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, March 20 - June 20, 2010; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, July 18 - October 11, 2010.
"Henri Matisse: Pair/Unpaired," Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, March 7 - June 18, 2012; Stantens Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 14 - October 28, 2012; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, New York, December 4, 2012 - March 17, 2013.
"Matisse: In Search of True Painting," Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, July 14 - October 28, 2012; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, December 4, 2012 - March 17, 2013.
"Collection Conversations: Henri Matisse: Harmonious Color," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, February 24 - June 28, 2015.
Cubism and War, Museu Picasso, Barcelona October 2016 - February 2017
"Selected Exhibition of the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Collection," Detroit Institute of Arts, Oct. 5 - 31, 1937. (Exhib. cat. no. 39).
"Picasso and Matisse," Boston Institute of Modern Art, Oct. 19 - Nov. 11, 1938. (Exhib. cat. no. 28).
"Paintings by Henri Matisse," Arts Club of Chicago, March 30 - April 18, 1939. (Exhib. cat. no. 3).
"Seven Centuries of Painting," California Palace of the Legion of Honor and M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, Dec. 29, 1939 - Jan. 28, 1940. (Exhib. cat. no. Y-186).
"Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Jan. 16 - May 11, 1941. (Exhib. cat. no. 121).
"Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown Inaugural Exhibition," Provincetown, Massachusetts,1958. (Exhib. cat. no. 41).
"French Paintings 1789-1929 from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Dayton Art Institute, March 25 - May 22, 1960. (Exhib. cat. no. 116).
"The Controversial Century 1850-1950," Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts, and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1962. (Exhib. cat. not paged).
"Henri Matisse, Exposition du Centenaire," Grand Palais, Paris, April - Sept. 1970. (Exhib. cat. no. 142).
"Henri Matisse," Acquavella Galleries, New York, Nov. 2 - Dec. 1, 1973. (Exhib. cat. no. 11).
"Homage to the Louvre," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, May - Sept., 1976.
"Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, June 12 - Sept. 5, 1977. (Exhib. cat. no. 49).
"Veronese to Franz Kline: Masterworks from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk," for the benefit of The Chrysler Museum Art Reference Library, Wildenstein & Co., New York, N. Y., April 13 - May 13, 1978. (Exhib. cat. no. 29).
"Henri Matisse Sculptor/Painter," Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, May 26 - Sept. 2, 1984. (Exhib. cat. no. 31).
"French Paintings from The Chrysler Museum," North Carolina Museum of Art, May 31 - Sept. 14, 1986; Birmingham Museum of Art, Nov. 6, 1986 - Jan. 18, 1987.
"Henri Matisse: A Retrospective," Museum of Modern Art, New York, Sept. 16, 1992 - Jan. 12, 1993.
"Cézanne and Beyond," Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennslyvania, February 26, 2009 - May 31, 2009.
"Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917," Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, March 20 - June 20, 2010; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, July 18 - October 11, 2010.
"Henri Matisse: Pair/Unpaired," Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, March 7 - June 18, 2012; Stantens Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 14 - October 28, 2012; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, New York, December 4, 2012 - March 17, 2013.
"Matisse: In Search of True Painting," Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, July 14 - October 28, 2012; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, December 4, 2012 - March 17, 2013.
"Collection Conversations: Henri Matisse: Harmonious Color," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, February 24 - June 28, 2015.
Cubism and War, Museu Picasso, Barcelona October 2016 - February 2017
Label textHenri Matisse
French, 1869–1954
Bowl of Apples on a Table, 1916
Oil on canvas
Are paintings meant to accurately reproduce the visible world, or should the artist focus more on creating a pleasing arrangement of shapes and forms? Here, Henri Matisse shows us that a painting can do both.
We recognize the bowl of apples on the table, and we may guess that the shapes on the left are the shutters on a window. Matisse tells us just enough to ground us in a familiar world. But he also flattens his space so that the elements of his composition seem to sit on the surface of the canvas. In the process, his wonderfully rich and resonant palette takes on a life of its own.
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.515
French, 1869–1954
Bowl of Apples on a Table, 1916
Oil on canvas
Are paintings meant to accurately reproduce the visible world, or should the artist focus more on creating a pleasing arrangement of shapes and forms? Here, Henri Matisse shows us that a painting can do both.
We recognize the bowl of apples on the table, and we may guess that the shapes on the left are the shutters on a window. Matisse tells us just enough to ground us in a familiar world. But he also flattens his space so that the elements of his composition seem to sit on the surface of the canvas. In the process, his wonderfully rich and resonant palette takes on a life of its own.
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.515
Published References
Bertina S. Manning. _Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown Inaugural Exhibition_. Provincetown, Massachusetts: Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown. 07/1958: p. 23, no.41.
Priscilla C. Colt and Charles H. Elam. _French Paintings 1789-1929 from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._. Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio. 1960. #116.
Foreword by Charles F. Comfort, LL.D., and an introduction by William S.A. Dale, Ph.D. _The Controversial Century: 1850-1950_. Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts. 1962. No pages.
Eric M. Zafran and Mario Amaya. _Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._. Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville. 1977. No. 49.
Eric M. Zafran and Mario Amaya. _Veronese to Franz Kline: Masterworks from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk_. Norfolk, VA: The Chrysler Museum. 1978. No. 29.
Chrysler Museum. _Selections from the Permanent Collection: The Chrysler Museum_. Norfolk, VA: Chrysler Museum of Art. 1982: p. 69.
Jack Flam. _Matisse: The Man and his Art, 1869-1918_. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1986: pp. 423, 429; ill. no. 433, p. 429.
Jefferson C. Harrison. _French Paintings from the Chrysler Museum_. The Chrysler Museum. 1986. No. 43.
Laura C. Lieberman. "Select Offerings: French Paintings from The Chrysler Museum," _Southern Accents_. Vol. 9, no. 6. 11/1986: 46-50.
Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum. 1991: 174-175, plate 132.
John Elderfield. _Henri Matisse: A Retrospective_. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, distributed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1992: 240, 269; color ill. no. 185, 260.
René Percheron and Christian Brouder, _Matisse de la couleur à L'Architecture_ (Paris: Éditions Citadelles & Mazenod, 2002), 118--119, fig. 136.
Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 55, fig. 55. ISBN: 978-0-940744-72-1
Edited by Joseph J. Rishel and Katherine Sachs, essays by Roberta Bernstein, et al., _Cézanne and Beyond_, exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, 2009, 131 plate 18. ISBN: 978-0-87633-209-2
Stephanie D'Alessandro and John Elderfield, _Matisse: Radical Inventory 1913-1917_, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, 2010, 277-279.
Cecil Debray, _Matisse: Paires et series_, ex. cat., Centre Pompidou, 2012. p. 101-105, ill p. 102
_Matisse: Paires et series_, ("The Exhibition"), Centre Pompidou, 2012. p. 25
Dorthe Aagesen and Rebecca Rabinow, eds., _Matisse: In Search of True Painting_, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012) 96, 211-212.
Christopher Green, _Cubism and War: The Crystal in the Flame_, Museu Picasso (Barcelona, Fundacio Museu Picasso de Barcelona Ediciones Poligrafa, 2016), catalog #20, p. 103.
Provenance
The artist; M. Duithuit, Paris; sale, collection Ch. V..., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 21, 1931; Valentine Galleries, New York, by 1936; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. by 1937; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., 1971.
Catalogue EntryHenri Matisse
French, 1869-1954
Bowl of Apples on a Table, 1916
Oil on canvas, 45¼" x 35¼" (115 x 89.5 cm)
Signed lower left: _Henri Matisse_
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 71.515
References: _Henri Matisse: Sculptor/Painter_, exhib. cat., Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1984, no. 31; Harrison, _CM_, 1986, no. 43.
By 1905 Henri Matisse had emerged as a leader of a small group of French avant-garde painters who focused totally on the expressive and decorative potential of pure, rapturous color - color freed from the mundane task of realistic description and granted an independent, evocative power. When these painters exhibited that year at the Salon d'Automne in Paris, outraged critics dismissed them as "the wild beasts," _les fauves_. Despite the uproar their brilliant-hued canvases provoked, the Fauves rapidly became one of the most influential artist groups in early twentieth-century Europe (see also no. 128).
The Fauve movement crested by 1907, and over the course of the next decade Matisse's passion for chromatic expression was rivaled increasingly by his commitment to greater formal discipline. Inspired particularly by the Cubists (see no. 139), he produced, between 1913 and 1917, a series of remarkably abstract and austere paintings, including The Chrysler Museum's _Bowl of Apples on a Table_. Despite his growing formal concerns during these years, Matisse never renounced the opulence and sensuousness of decorative color. Indeed, he strove throughout his career for an art that would delight and calm both the eye and mind:
What I dream of [he once said] is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter, an art which might be for every mental worker, be he businessman or writer, like an appeasing influence, like a mental soother, something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue.
In 1909 Matisse moved from Paris to nearby Issy-les-Moulineaux. He worked on and off there until 1917, when Nice became his principal residence. It was at Issy in the late spring of 1916 that he produced _Bowl of Apples on a Table_. Two related paintings of that spring are the comparably designed still life, _Apples_ (Art Institute of Chicago), and _The Window_ (Detroit Institute of Arts), an interior scene that features the same pedestal table as the Chrysler picture. In a letter written from Issy on June 1, 1916, to his friend Hans Purrmann, Matisse noted that he had finished _The Window_. Scholars posit that the undated _Bowl of Apples on a Table_ was painted immediately after. The sketchy and improvisational _Apples_ in Chicago probably served as a prelude to the more formal and finished Chrysler composition.
The humble imagery of the Chrysler still life - a bowl of fruit on a table with a curtain or louvered door at left - achieves an impression of "monumental dignity and colossal size" (Alfred Barr) as a result of Matisse's closely cropped and frontally ordered design. Cubist influence pervades the composition. As Michael Mezzatesta has noted, it can be traced in "the linearity and simplified geometry focusing on the round tabletop; the strong vertical axis established by the table pedestal; the flattening of space caused by tipping the tabletop forward, the elimination of the third leg, and the folding out of the right side of the pedestal." yet, over these formal considerations, the poetry of Matisse's color prevails. The apples, brilliant in hue, glow magically in their yellow bowl as if lit from within. "To copy the objects in a still life is nothing," Matisse told his students. "One must render the emotion they awaken."
Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum. 1991: 174-175, plate 132.
French, 1869-1954
Bowl of Apples on a Table, 1916
Oil on canvas, 45¼" x 35¼" (115 x 89.5 cm)
Signed lower left: _Henri Matisse_
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 71.515
References: _Henri Matisse: Sculptor/Painter_, exhib. cat., Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1984, no. 31; Harrison, _CM_, 1986, no. 43.
By 1905 Henri Matisse had emerged as a leader of a small group of French avant-garde painters who focused totally on the expressive and decorative potential of pure, rapturous color - color freed from the mundane task of realistic description and granted an independent, evocative power. When these painters exhibited that year at the Salon d'Automne in Paris, outraged critics dismissed them as "the wild beasts," _les fauves_. Despite the uproar their brilliant-hued canvases provoked, the Fauves rapidly became one of the most influential artist groups in early twentieth-century Europe (see also no. 128).
The Fauve movement crested by 1907, and over the course of the next decade Matisse's passion for chromatic expression was rivaled increasingly by his commitment to greater formal discipline. Inspired particularly by the Cubists (see no. 139), he produced, between 1913 and 1917, a series of remarkably abstract and austere paintings, including The Chrysler Museum's _Bowl of Apples on a Table_. Despite his growing formal concerns during these years, Matisse never renounced the opulence and sensuousness of decorative color. Indeed, he strove throughout his career for an art that would delight and calm both the eye and mind:
What I dream of [he once said] is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter, an art which might be for every mental worker, be he businessman or writer, like an appeasing influence, like a mental soother, something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue.
In 1909 Matisse moved from Paris to nearby Issy-les-Moulineaux. He worked on and off there until 1917, when Nice became his principal residence. It was at Issy in the late spring of 1916 that he produced _Bowl of Apples on a Table_. Two related paintings of that spring are the comparably designed still life, _Apples_ (Art Institute of Chicago), and _The Window_ (Detroit Institute of Arts), an interior scene that features the same pedestal table as the Chrysler picture. In a letter written from Issy on June 1, 1916, to his friend Hans Purrmann, Matisse noted that he had finished _The Window_. Scholars posit that the undated _Bowl of Apples on a Table_ was painted immediately after. The sketchy and improvisational _Apples_ in Chicago probably served as a prelude to the more formal and finished Chrysler composition.
The humble imagery of the Chrysler still life - a bowl of fruit on a table with a curtain or louvered door at left - achieves an impression of "monumental dignity and colossal size" (Alfred Barr) as a result of Matisse's closely cropped and frontally ordered design. Cubist influence pervades the composition. As Michael Mezzatesta has noted, it can be traced in "the linearity and simplified geometry focusing on the round tabletop; the strong vertical axis established by the table pedestal; the flattening of space caused by tipping the tabletop forward, the elimination of the third leg, and the folding out of the right side of the pedestal." yet, over these formal considerations, the poetry of Matisse's color prevails. The apples, brilliant in hue, glow magically in their yellow bowl as if lit from within. "To copy the objects in a still life is nothing," Matisse told his students. "One must render the emotion they awaken."
Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum. 1991: 174-175, plate 132.