Matisse : L'atelier Rouge

Exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, 4 May - 9 September 2024

Created in 1911, Henri Matisse's The Red Studio would go on to become one of the most influential works in the history of modern art. The painting, which has hung in MoMA's galleries since 1949, depicts the artist's studio in the Parisian suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux, filled with his own artworks, furniture and decorative objects. Matisse's radical decision to saturate the work's surface with red has fascinated generations of scholars and artists, yet much remained to be discovered about the painting's genesis and history.

Richly illustrated, this catalogue of the exhibition that reunites the artworks shown in The Red Studio for the first time since they left Matisse's work space examines the paintings and sculptures depicted in it, from familiar works such as Young Sailor II (1906) to lesser-known pieces whose locations have only recently been discovered. The book features several essays by specialists and a rich selection of archival materials - photographs, letters and ephemera -, many of which have never before been published or exhibited.