Lithograph on vélin d’Arches paper. Paper size: 15 x 11 inches. Excellent condition. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the folio, Les Peintres mes amis, 1965. Published by Éditions d'art Les Heures Claires, Paris; printed by Mourlot Frères, Paris, May 20, 1965. Excerpted from the volume (translated from French), The lithographs of Derain and Van Dongen were shot by Lucien Détruit; those of Dufy, Matisse, Chagall, Dunoyer de Segonzac, Cavailles, Terechkovitch and Carzou were shot by Mourlot Frères; those of Picasso and Buffet were shot by P.J. Ballon; Miró's was shot in l'atelier Arte, who also printed, in phototypy, the frontispice. The Villon and Zadkine etchings were shot by Manuel Robbe; Braque's was shot by A. and P. Crommelynck; the illustrations of Vlaminck, Rouault, Pascin and Utrillo were engraved on wood and shot by Raymond Jacquet. André Warnod's texts, collected by his daughter, Jeanine Warod, were composed by hand in De Roos de corps 24 and printed in Paris on the presses of Daragnès. Finished printing on May 20, 1965. Justification of the draw: 3 examples on grand vélin d’Arches with the inked coppers of an illustration in taille-douce; a silk test of two lithographs; the four illustrations engraved on wood, framed; a decomposition of the colors of a lithograph; a complete suite on Arches of the illustrations, numbered 1-3. 16 examples on grand vélin d’Arches with a silk proof of two lithographs; the four illustrations engraved on wood, framed; a decomposition of the colors of a lithography; a complete suite on Arches of illustrations, numbered from 4 to 19. 21 examples on grand vélin d’Arches comprising of a silk proof of two lithographs; the four illustrations engraved on wood, framed; a complete suite on Arches of the illustrations, numbered from 20 to 40. 40 examples on grand vélin d’Arches with a complete suite on Arches of the illustrations, numbered from 41 to 80. 170 examples on grand vélin d’Arches, numbered from 81 to 250. HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954) One of the undisputed masters of 20th century art, was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. Although he was initially labeled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.