Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954). <em>Flowers (Fleurs)</em>, 1906. Oil on canvas, 21 5/8 x 18 1/8 in. (54.9 x 46 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Marion Gans Pomeroy, 61.243. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 61.243_color_corrected_SL1.jpg)

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Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954). Flowers (Fleurs), 1906. Oil on canvas, 21 5/8 x 18 1/8 in. (54.9 x 46 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Marion Gans Pomeroy, 61.243. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 61.243_color_corrected_SL1.jpg)

Flowers (Fleurs)

Henri Matisse

European Art

On View: European Art Galleries, 5th floor

This canvas was painted one year after a critic reviewing the Salon d’Automne exhibition in Paris used the term Fauves (meaning “wild beasts”) to describe similar paintings by Henri Matisse, in which bold brushwork and vivid, nonrealistic color denied any conventional perception of depth. Here, variable patches, strokes, and smudges of unblended paint, along with areas of unpainted canvas, render empty space and solid objects alike. For Matisse, such still lifes were a vehicle for exploring color, as he noted: “Construction by colored surfaces. Search for intensity of color, subject matter being unimportant. . . . Light . . . expressed by a harmony of intensely colored surfaces.”

ARTIST Henri Matisse, French, 1869-1954

MEDIUM Oil on canvas

Place Made: France

DATES 1906

DIMENSIONS 21 5/8 x 18 1/8 in. (54.9 x 46 cm) frame: 2 1/8 x 26 7/16 x 22 3/4 in. (5.4 x 67.2 x 57.8 cm) (show scale)

SIGNATURE Signed lower right: "Henri Matisse"

COLLECTIONS European Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 61.243

CREDIT LINE Gift of Marion Gans Pomeroy

EXHIBITIONS

Monet to Morisot: The Real and Imagined in European Art

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in European Art Galleries, 5th floor

CAPTION Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954). Flowers (Fleurs), 1906. Oil on canvas, 21 5/8 x 18 1/8 in. (54.9 x 46 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Marion Gans Pomeroy, 61.243. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 61.243_color_corrected_SL1.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 61.243_color_corrected_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

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