The Golden Bouquet

About this work

A loose bouquet of white blossoms and dark green leaves stands in a simple glass vase. It is drawn in one fine, continuous gold line on warm cream, and behind it float soft coral and sage shapes that look cut from paper. Light and airy: flowers that never wilt.

Henri Matisse used both of the languages combined here. In the 1940s he made series of drawings in a single flowing line, reducing a face or a vase of flowers to a few sure strokes. In his last years, when illness made work at the easel difficult, he cut shapes from paper painted with gouache and arranged them into large compositions, a method he called drawing with scissors. This is a reimagining in gold, not a copy of any one work. The line is gold, and the cut-out shapes sit quietly behind it.

It works in a bedroom, a kitchen or a hallway, and makes a thoughtful gift for someone who loves flowers. Cream, warm white or pale sage walls keep it airy, and a soft coral wall picks up the cut-outs. It belongs to the set Matisse Lines in Gold with The Lovers and The Woman with a Bird. At about 9,000 px on the long edge it prints sharply to roughly 76 cm at 300 dpi.