Artist: Henri Matisse
Title: La danseuse Créole
Medium: Original Lithograph, 1965
Dimensions: 39 x 24.2 in ; 99 x 61.5 cm

Created by Matisse in 1950, Creole Dancer and Zulma are two of Matisse’s favorite pieces. Matisse based the cut-out figure on Katherine Dunham, an American dancer and choreographer, whose modern dance routines were influenced by dances from Africa and Haiti. Ms. Dunham had been invited to perform in Matisse’s studio. He created Creole Dancer from the sketches he made while she was dancing. The work was completed in a single day, using left over bits of paper. It was a 1953 gift from Henri Matisse to Musée Matisse in Nice.

Many critics consider this to be his most innovative period. He had begun to experience severe arthritis and had a bout with cancer which forced him to be confined in a wheelchair. He could no longer stand to paint, so instead he created paintings with scissors by cutting pieces of colorful paper and gluing them onto larger pieces of paper with the help of his assistants. They were called gouaches découpées (cutouts). Danseuse Créole is a fine example of this style, with its use of stunning colors and shapes to create a scene. This lithograph was published by the French Tourism office to help promote tourism in the South of France.

Galerie Filali is pleased to collaborate with our personal friend Galerie Mourlot, New York, to present a collection of rare lithographs from legendary Parisian printing house Atelier Mourlot.

Founded in Paris in 1852, Atelier Mourlot has been synonymous with fine art lithography for over 150 years. From 1930, under the direction of the founder’s grandson, Fernand Mourlot, leading artists were invited to the studio to collaborate on traditional limestone lithography. For painters like Matisse, the medium provided an exciting new form of expression.

Each individual work of art comes with a Certificate of Provenance, signed, dated, stamped, and numbered by Eric Mourlot. Stored in a clear protective sleeve accompanying your piece, this Certificate of Provenance is recognized by all the major auction houses should you care to resell at any point. This ensures the validity of its origin and its being in the Mourlot archives since its production.