Vintage Henri Matisse Lithograph “One Thousand and One Nights”, 1960’s, Framed

Here is a lovely and lively framed print after Henri Matisse titled ‘1001 Nuits’ in French. It is a collage that represents the story of Scheherazade, the main protagonist and storyteller from the aforementioned story which is referred to as “Arabian Nights” in English. In the composition is the phrase “elle vit apparaitre le matin, elle se tut discrètement” which loosely translates into English as “as dawn approached, she discreetly fell silent.”

During the last decade of his life, when he could no longer paint due to physical limitations, Matisse began to create colorful and expressive collages (decoupage) using cut paper to represent abstract shapes, figures, animals and plants. Before cutting the forms, the paper was pre-painted w/ gouache by his assistants then he would cut the random, unplanned forms and arrange them on a modestly-sized white medium such as this example.

As he kept working, those compositions eventually morphed into room-sized works. These works were referred to as his “cut-outs”. The print and frame appear to be the original from the 1960’s. The original collage painting from which the prints are inspired actually measured roughly 4.5 feet high x 12 feet long.

This piece could look great over a deeply moody wall color or perhaps even a plant-themed wallpaper.