Lithograph on vélin a la forme des papeteries d'Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered. Paper Size: 12.99 x 9.84 inches. Excellent condition. Notes: From the folio, Apollinaire, Henri Matisse, 1952. Published by Éditions Raisons d'être, Paris; printed by Mourlot Frères, Paris, April 24, 1952. Excerpted from the folio (translated from French), Printing of this folio was finished on April, Twenty-Four, M.CM.LII for the Éditions Raisons d'être, 2 rue des Beaux-Arts in Paris, was produced by Fernand Mourlot, based on the models of Henri Matisse. The eight original lithographs were shot on the presses of Mourlot Frères who also printed the cover and case composed by the artist. The stones were erased after drawing. The text and letrins engraved by Henri Matisse were drawn by Coulouma S.A., printer in Paris. Justification of the draw— XXX examples on large vélin d'Arches a la form, signed by the author and the artist, accompanied by a series of original lithographs numbered from I to XXX; CCC examples on vélin d'Arches a la forme numbered from XXXI to CCCXXX; XX examples of non-commerce collaborators numbered from I to XX and in addition a few nominative copies on Grand Vélin. HISTORY OF THE EDITION: According to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, This publication was a joint effort by Matisse and author André Rouveyre, in memory of their common friend, the critic Guillaume Apollonaire (1880-1918), who died during the First World War. Although Apollonaire championed the Cubists, he also appreciated work by artists like Matisse whose interests diverged from Cubism. In a 1907 interview, the critic equated Matisse’s goal of plastic, or formal, expression with a poet’s search for lyric expression. 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.