Lagoon (Le Lagon) from Jazz
Henri Matisse
French, 1869–1954
1947
A hand-colored pochoir from Henri Matisse’s Jazz portfolio that translates his late cut-paper experiments into a playful, lagoon-like composition of bold, flat color.
Flat swathes of lime green, turquoise and cobalt are punctuated by a magenta ribbon, white negative arcs and a gnarled black, coral-like motif, their undulating, cut-paper shapes creating a lively, rhythmic movement across the page.
Made near the end of Matisse’s career, these prints translated his scissors-and-paper discoveries into reproducible works, helping legitimize cut-paper as a modern medium and influencing later color abstraction and graphic design.
Medium
One from a portfolio of twenty pochoirs
Dimensions
composition (irreg.): 16 x 24 1/8" (40.7 x 61.2 cm); sheet: 16 5/8 x 25 11/16" (42.3 x 65.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the artist
Accession
291.1948.18
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
