Matisse. The Red Studio

Edited by Ann Temkin and Dorthe Aagesen 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 artworks, furniture, and decorative objects. Matisse’s radical decision to blanket most of the work’s surface in red has fascinated generations of scholars and artists, yet much remained to be discovered about the painting’s genesis and history.

Published in conjunction with an exhibition that reunites the artworks shown in The Red Studio for the first time since they left Matisse’s workspace, this copiously illustrated volume examines the paintings and sculptures depicted in it, from familiar works such as Le Luxe (II) (1907–08)—one of the three works seen in The Red Studio now in the collection of SMK – National Gallery of Denmark—to lesser-known pieces whose locations have only recently been discovered. A narrative essay by Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Dorthe Aagesen, Chief Curator and Senior Researcher at SMK in Copenhagen, traces the life of The Red Studio, from the initial commissioning of the work through its early history of exhibition and ownership to its arrival at MoMA. With its groundbreaking research and close reading of the work, Matisse: The Red Studio transforms our understanding of this landmark of twentieth-century art.