Acquavella Galleries

Thank you, Alfred MacAdam for your review in the @brooklynrail of our Matisse exhibition! Describing the show as a “historical tour de force,” MacAdam discusses several of the works in the exhibition in his review. “On the second floor, the portrait Mademoiselle Yvonne Landsberg (1914) is another masterful act of reimagination: here Matisse utterly transforms portraiture. Ms. Landsberg, demurely posed with her hands crossed over her lap, is either standing or perched precariously on a tall chair. Her face is reduced to a few lines, and all around her swirl whirling lines of force, as if she emanated some strange electricity… Matisse takes a cliché and turns it into something new and wonderful. ... It is in his bronzes that Matisse most dramatically shows his abilities as a genuinely original innovator, not just a reinventor of traditional compositions. The five “Jeannette” bronzes created between 1910 and 1913, small in scale—the largest is just 24 by 10 by 11 inches—demonstrate Matisse’s evolving freedom from tradition more directly than what we find in his paintings. Jeannette I (1910) is quite representational in a conventional sense, but by the time we get to Jeannette V (1913), the subject’s face has been thoroughly abstracted, transformed into a chunky mask. The “Backs” series shows us this trajectory as well. In these four iconic and increasingly abstracted relief sculptures Matisse challenges Michelangelo’s Young Slave, reconfiguring the idea of the figure embedded in the medium—marble for Michelangelo, bronze for Matisse. The Acquavella Matisse show is a rare opportunity to catch up on a master. Best absorbed chronologically, the exhibit is a historical tour de force.” For the full review, please see the link in our bio!

This is the last Saturday to catch “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony”! The gallery is open today, May 16th, until 6pm. Photo by @viskohatfield

Thank you, Nate Freeman, for highlighting our Matisse exhibition in @vanityfair ’s guide of art to see in Manhattan right now! He writes: “The attendees at the British Museum cocktail party, surrounded by masterworks of 20th-century art, couldn’t help but gush about one single gallery show on view in New York City. That would be “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony” at Acquavella Galleries on the Upper East Side. The multigenerational art-dealing family has sold many Matisses throughout the decades, and borrowed many of them back for an exhibition that’s basically unheard of these days at a commercial gallery. There are 50 works. One hundred people can be inside at one time. Nothing is for sale. Walking up 79th Street on Thursday morning, I saw a line down the stairs that extended most of the way to the Park. I don’t know how to convey how strange that is-for an exhibition of an Impressionist painter at a townhouse gallery off Madison to have a Banksy-esque line of influencer-status length. Inside, in the first gallery, is Odalisque couché aux magnolias. It’s a stunner that was last seen in public when it sold for $80.75 million at Christie’s, consigned by the estate of Peggy and David Rockefeller.” Images: Photo of “Odalisque couché aux magnolias” by Visko Hatfield, shot for Christie’s from the sale of the collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller. Install shots featuring “Odalisque couché aux magnolias”. © 2026 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

“The entire arrangement of my picture is expressive; the place occupied by the figures, the empty spaces around them, the proportions, everything has its share.” - Henri Matisse Layered with harmonious rhythms of pattern, form, and color, “Harmony in Yellow” was painted in late 1927–early 1928, shortly after Matisse moved to a larger top-floor apartment at 1 place Charles-Félix in Nice. With more space in which to work and a large studio window flooding the room with light, Matisse embarked enthusiastically on this ambitious composition. Working with a new model, Zita, whom he felt epitomized the spirit of the exotic odalisque, Matisse theatrically constructed this richly orchestrated setting with cascading draperies and exquisitely embellished still-life elements.  In a variation on the theme, Matisse painted the closely related composition “Odalisques Playing Checkers” in 1928, featuring many of the same patterns and objects drawn from his collection of treasured objects. Both “Harmony in Yellow” and “Odalisques Playing Checkers” are on view in our exhibition “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony” through May 22 in New York. Harmonie jaune [Harmony in Yellow] 1927-28 Oil on canvas 34 5/8 x 34 5/8 inches (88 x 88 cm) Private Collection Odalisques jouant aux dames [Odalisques Playing Checkers] 1928 Oil on canvas 21 1/2 x 29 inches (55 x 74 cm) Private Collection © 2026 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

“I made sculpture because what interested me in painting was the clarification of my ideas. I changed medium and worked in clay as a respite from painting when I had done absolutely all that I could for the moment. Which is to say that it was always for the purpose of organization. It was done to give order to my feelings, to seek a method that completely suited me. When I found it in sculpture, it helped me in painting.” —Henri Matisse In our exhibition “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony,” the French artist’s sculptures are centrally featured in each of the show’s four galleries. Exhibited in conversation with Matisse’s paintings, the show highlights the artist’s interdisciplinary approach and the dialogue between his two- and three-dimensional work. While Matisse is widely celebrated as unparalleled in his mastery of color, his experimentation with form was equally central to his artistic pursuits. In each chapter of his career, Matisse worked to refine and essentialize his approach to form and the figure. Simplified, rhythmic forms, often inspired by the graceful, flowing lines of the arabesque, were integral to Matisse’s lifelong pursuit of harmony and balance in his art.  Working across mediums aided Matisse in his search for what he called a “clarity of expression.” In his own words: “When I found it in sculpture, it helped me in painting.” There are only ten days left to catch “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony”! The gallery is open Monday-Saturday until the show closes on May 22nd.

“A Romanian blouse does not belong to any period. All the peasant clothes are passed down from century to century without going out of fashion.” — YSL Textiles and fabrics played an important role in Matisse’s life and his art, inspiring formal experimentation throughout his career. The painter was born into a town that was a center of the textile industry in northern France and he developed a deep interest in fabrics from a very young age. Collecting textiles and costumes throughout his life, Matisse kept a “working library” that he and his models would draw from as the artist theatrically set the stage for his compositions in the studio. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Matisse made a cycle of drawings and paintings featuring the Romanian blouse’s intricate embroidery and embellished details. Two of these drawings are on view in “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony,” up at the gallery through May 22nd. The French couturier Yves Saint Laurent was inspired by modern art throughout his career, and particularly by Matisse’s use of color and pattern. This influence can be seen most clearly in the designer’s interpretation of Matisse’s series of works featuring Romanian folk blouses, with YSL designing several haute couture collections that made direct references to Matisse’s paintings and drawings on the theme. Later this year, the Matisse Museum in Nice and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Paris are collaborating on an exhibition dedicated to the two creative giants, which will be on view in Nice this summer from June 17 - September 28th. Images: Henri Matisse “The Romanian Blouse,” 1940 Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x 28 3/4 inches Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris Henri Matisse “Woman in a Romanian Blouse,” 1938 Charcoal on paper, 24 x 16 inches Private Collection Henri Matisse “The Dream,” 1939 Charcoal and estompe on paper, 24 x 16 1/8 inches Private Collection Alek Wek modeling a Matisse-inspired evening ensemble from Yves Saint Laurent from their haute couture collection Spring / Summer 2002

“One tone alone is only one color, two tones are a chord, that is life.” — Henri Matisse In 1910, Matisse painted a group of four canvases devoted to geraniums in simple terracotta pots—a motif he had first explored during his Fauve period in 1906 in “Still Life with Geranium” (now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago). In “The Geranium,” on view in “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony,” the plant is just beginning to bloom. Its pink petals and vivid green leaves are delicately articulated, some of their edges marked by incised lines Matisse carved into the painted surface with the back of his brush. While related compositions set the geranium against patterned textiles or decorative wallpapers, here the artist opts for a deceptively spare ground: a luminous field built from layered violets, magentas, and cobalt blues. A meditation on chromatic intensity and balance, “The Geranium” exemplifies Matisse’s singular ability to orchestrate color—transforming a modest subject into a resonant harmony of tones. In our exhibition, the painting is paired with the sculpture “La Serpentine” (1909), where the sinuous arc of the plant’s stem finds a sculptural echo in the elongated torso of the bronze nude. The Serpentine, 1909 Bronze, edition of 10 22 1/4 × 11 × 7 1/2 inches (56.5 × 28 × 19 cm) Private Collection The Geranium, 1910 Oil on canvas 17 7/8 × 21 5/8 inches (45.4 × 54.9 cm) Private Collection © 2026 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

“For me, the subject of a picture and its background have the same value, or, to put it more clearly, there is no principal feature, only the pattern is important. The picture is formed by the combination of surfaces, differently colored.” - Henri Matisse In “The Black Table,” 1919, on loan to our exhibition “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony” from a private collection, Matisse’s model Antoinette sits at a table in the artist’s studio. She wears a green turban, a diaphanous blouse, and sky blue vest detailed with gold embroidery—these collected elements of costume are set against a backdrop of patterned blue wallpaper and a vivid, hanging textile, richly layering the painting with decorative elements and colorful patterns. In her review of our exhibition for the Wall Street Journal, Karen Wilkin describes this painting: “But there are also rarely seen works from all periods, including … the ravishing “La Table Noire (The Black Table)” (1919), its seated model in a green hat, executed with some of the most seductive brushwork in the history of modernism.” The Black Table, 1919 Oil on canvas 39 3/8 x 31 7/8 inches (100 x 81 cm) Private Collection © 2026 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Featuring essays by art historians John Klein, Elizabeth Cowling, and Alastair Wright, the book accompanying our exhibition “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony” is now available for order on our website. Co-published by Rizzoli, this definitive volume offers an unparalleled look at Henri Matisse’s lifelong pursuit of harmony in his art. The publication underscores the interdisciplinary nature of Matisse’s practice, presenting the dialogue between the artist’s two- and three-dimensional work. It traces his evolution from the early years of the twentieth century through his boldly innovative postwar period. At 275 pages, the publication features plates and details of the 55 works on loan, in addition to archival photographs. See link in bio for additional details! About the Authors John Klein is an internationally known specialist of Matisse. He is professor of art history at Washington University in St. Louis and author of Matisse Portraits (2001) and Matisse and Decoration (2018). Elizabeth Cowling is professor emerita in history of art at the University of Edinburgh. She coauthored Matisse Picasso (2002). Alastair Wright is associate professor in the history of art at Oxford and author of Matisse and the Subject of Modernism.

Kindred visions. Henri Matisse’s Purple Cyclamen meets the Oscar de la Renta Spring 2026 interpretation of the flower.  Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony, on view at Acquavella Galleries New York through May 22nd.  Photographed by @_brettwarren_ Purple Cyclamen, 1911 Oil on canvas 28 3/4 x 23 5/8 inches Private Collection Art © 2026 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Now on view at @acquavellagalleries in New York, ‘Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony’ brings together over 50 iconic works spanning five decades of Henri Matisse’s practice. It’s Acquavella’s first exhibition devoted to the modernist pioneer in over 50 years. Tracing the artist’s bold, dynamic explorations of colour and form, the show presents a rich and diverse selection of sculptures, paintings and works on paper on loan from museums and private collections. Its title nods to Matisse’s lifelong obsession with balance, usually in reference to his use of colour. But it offers a new perspective – revealing the development of his approach to form, volume and the human figure through sculpture. The show is free to enter – don’t miss your chance to see ‘The Pursuit of Harmony’ before it closes on 22 May.

In this photo from 1913, Matisse can be seen transforming his The Back II sculpture into The Back III in his Paris studio. With a chisel in his hand, he reworks the hard plaster surface to create a more angular, jagged rendering of the female nude, reflecting his exploration of Cubism at the time. Created over a period of more than twenty years, Matisse began his only series of monumental sculptures with The Back I in 1908. He worked on this first relief for over a year in his Paris studio, repeatedly reworking the clay composition before casting it in plaster in 1909. For The Back II, Matisse adopted new techniques, carving into the hard plaster with chisels and hammers and adding fresh material to reshape the composition. Each subsequent relief was developed from a plaster cast of the previous version, enabling Matisse to maintain the underlying composition while introducing significant formal changes. The four reliefs existed as unique plaster casts until 1950, when The Back I, The Back III, and The Back IV were cast in bronze (The Back II, lost during the artist’s lifetime, was cast in bronze after it was rediscovered in 1955). The series was cast in an edition of twelve, nine of which are now held in museum collections worldwide. The Backs were never shown together during Matisse’s lifetime. In our exhibition, “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony,” all four The Back sculptures are on view through May 22. Photo by Alvin Langdon Coburn © Photographie Alvin Langdon Coburn / © The Universal Order The Back II, conceived 1911–12, cast 1965 Bronze, edition of 10 74 x 47 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches (188 x120.7 x 16.5 cm) Private Collection The Back III], conceived 1913–16, cast 1965 Bronze, edition of 10 73 1/2 x 45 x 6 1/4 inches (186.7 x114.3 x15.9 cm) Private Collection © 2026 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York