New exhibition: Iconic Matisse painting comes to Denmark
Henri Matisse. The Red Studio. 1911. Oil on canvas, 181 x 219,1 cm. Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © Succession H. Matisse/VISDA 2022
The famous painting The Red Studio was created in 1911 by the French artist Henri Matisse (1869–1954). Matisse is regarded as one of the great masters of twentieth century art, and this particular painting is considered a landmark – not just within Matisse’s art, but in European modernism as a whole. The picture now belongs to The Museum of Modern Art in New York. It ranks among the museum's most important and popular works, and is loaned only on extremely rare occasions.
Measuring approximately 180 x 220 cm, the canvas shows Matisse’s studio in the Parisian suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux, filled with the artist’s own paintings, sculptures and decorative objects. The most remarkable feature of the picture is that the walls, floor and furniture of studio are painted in the same shade of red.
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Press view Programme 10.00–10.45 am Introduction by Dorthe Aagesen, Chief Curator and Senior Researcher at SMK, and Mette Houlberg Rung, Art Interpreter at SMK. The exhibition is open to members of the press 10.00–12.00 am The exhibition is supported by the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation, The Augustinus Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. |
The artworks depicted in The Red Studio left the artist’s studio more than one hundred years ago and were dispersed, but now MoMA and SMK are reuniting them for the first time ever in an exhibition. The exhibition opens at SMK on 13 October, after having been shown at MoMA earlier this year to critical and popular acclaim.
Rediscovered works and highlights from SMK
The tightly focused exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see The Red Studio in Denmark while also enabling visitors to delve deep into Matisse’s choice of subject matter and working methods.
The core of the exhibition features The Red Studio alongside the surviving paintings and sculptures depicted in it. All the works date from the period 1898 to 1911. Several of them are well-documented and famous Matisse works, while others are lesser-known pieces whose locations have only recently been discovered . Only a single work is missing, as it was destroyed after Matisse’s death at his own request.
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Henri Matisse. Young Sailor II. 1906. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, 1998 (1999.363.41) © Succession H. Matisse/VISDA 2022 Photo: Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Source: Art Resource
Three of the paintings depicted in The Red Studio belong to SMK and constitute major highlights within the museum’s collection. These are the works Le Luxe II (1907–1908), Nude with a While Scarf (1909) and Bathers (1907). Acquired for the museum in 2018, the latter was known as Nymph and Faun until recently. However, the research undertaken in connection with this exhibition unearthed a private note from Matisse, revealing the original title of the work.
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Henri Matisse, Bathers, 1907, Oil on canvas, 73 x 59 cm, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark
© Succession H. Matisse/VISDA 2022
From an English nightclub to the MoMA collection
The exhibition also features a range of other paintings and drawings by Matisse closely associated with The Red Studio. A selection of original photos, letters and documents – several of which had never been on public display before being shown at MoMA and now at SMK – reveal new knowledge about the subject and history of the painting.
The archival materials unfold the story of The Red Studio’s unusual journey. The work was commissioned by the Russian collector Sergei Shchukin, who had given Matisse free rein to select whatever subject he wished. Even so, when Shchukin received a sketch of The Red Studio, he declined to buy it. The work remained with Matisse for almost sixteen years and was exhibited only a few times before it was purchased in 1927 by the owner of the exclusive Gargoyle Club in London. Here it remained until the early 1940s, placed in a room filled with smoke, music, dancing and cocktails, forming a backdrop for conversations on art and culture. The painting was acquired for MoMA’s collection in 1949.
The exhibition also presents new technical studies of The Red Studio, which reveal that Matisse made the decision to cover the walls, floor and furniture with a uniform red colour at a late stage of the process. This radical move has inspired generations of artists, and its significance is still debated today.
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Event programme and publication The exhibition is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue, created in collaboration between SMK and MoMA. A narrative essay by Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA, and Dorthe Aagesen, Chief Curator and Senior Researcher at SMK, traces the life of The Red Studio, from the original commissioning of the work in 1910, through its early history of exhibitions and ownership to the painting’s arrival at MoMA. During the exhibition period, SMK will present a series of events related to Matisse and The Red Studio. |
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Henri Matisse, Decorative Figure, 1908, bronze, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Sam and Ayala Zacks, 1970. 71/248 © Succession H. Matisse/VISDA 2022. Photo courtesy Art Gallery of Ontario
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One of the world's largest Matisse collections SMK - National Gallery of Denmark, owns one of the most important Matisse collections outside of France. The collection includes 25 paintings and sculptures as well as a large number of works on paper. The scope and significance of the collection is due partly to the fact that in 1928, the engineer, politician and art collector Johannes Rump donated his private collection of modern French art to the museum. |
13 October 2022 – 26 February 2023
For inquiries, please contact:
Michala Rosendahl
Press
M: miro@smk.dk
T: +45 2552 7279
Matisse: The Red Studio is organized by SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen and The Museum of Modern Art, New York
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