Between 1905 and 1914, Matisse spent various summers and one winter in the small fishing village of Collioure on the Mediterranean coast, not far from the Spanish border. During his first summer there, his family initially lived in a small pension, "La Mère Rosette," before moving into an apartment facing the harbor, from which he painted various window views. Then, from 1906 to 1914, the artist rented the upper floor of a small house complete with studio and skylight. From there it was only a seven-minute walk to the picturesque site above the rock (called "Roca-Alta d'en Beille," Catalan for "High Rock") from which Matisse often painted views of Collioure such as this one.
By 1907, Matisse had developed the flat and decorative style that he had employed for the first time in 1906 in the Young Sailor II (MMA 1999.363.41). The black lines that form a screen before the view of Collioure and the sea are the trunks and branches of the umbrella pines that grow on the hillside overlooking the harbor. Encircling the areas of bright color painted in greens, blues, mauves, and earth tones, the sinuous lines resemble the leading around stained-glass windows; not surprisingly, the Matisse family referred to this painting as "Le Vitrail" ("The Stained Glass"), and it is often listed as such in early exhibition catalogues. Through the foliage is a distant view of several red-roofed houses, the tower of Collioure's church, and a horizontal band marking the division between the pink sky and deep-blue sea.
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Michael and Sarah Stein, Paris (1907/08–ca. 1917; at outbreak of World War I, with Greta and Oskar Moll, Berlin, 1914–ca. 1917; allegedly confiscated in 1917 by Gurlitt); [Fritz Gurlitt, Berlin, 1917–19; sold in fictitious auction in 1917 and bought by Gurlitt himself; claimed in 1919 by Hans Purmann on behalf of the Steins]; Michael and Sarah Stein, Paris (1919–ca. 1922; sold through Purrmann to Tetzen-Lund); Christian Tetzen-Lund, Copenhagen (ca. 1922–at least 1925; his sale, May 18–19, 1925, Copenhagen, no. 90, as "Cailloure [sic] à travers les abres [sic]," bought in); (sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 2, 1929, no. 86, as "Paysage maritime," for Fr 60,000, to Cuttoli); Marie Cuttoli, Paris (from 1929; sold to Rubinstein); Helena Rubinstein, Paris and New York (by 1937–d. 1965; her estate sale, Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, April 20, 1966, no. 48, as "Paysage à Collioure," ca. 1911, sold to Thaw); [E. V. Thaw & Co., Inc., New York, 1966–67; sold on April 5, 1967 to Gelman]; Jacques and Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1967–his d. 1986); Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1986–d. 1998; her bequest to MMA)
Paris. Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées. "Salon d'Automne," October 1–22, 1907, no. 759 or 759b (as "Paysage [esquisse]").
Berlin. Kunstsalon Fritz Gurlitt. "Henri Matisse," July 1914, no. 16 (as "Collioure zwischen Bäumen").
Copenhagen. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. "Henri Matisse. Udstilling af hans Arbejder," September 1924, no. 27 (as "Collioure set gennem træerne").
Paris. Musée du Jeu de Paume. "Origines et développement de l'art international indépendant," July 30–October 31, 1937, no. 44 (as "Collioure à travers les arbres," 1905, lent by Helena Rubinstein).
Paris. Grand Palais. "Henri Matisse: Exposition du centenaire," April 21–September 21, 1970, no. 88 (as "Vue de Collioure," lent by M. et Mme Jacques Gelman, Mexico).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Four Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family," December 19, 1970–March 1, 1971, unnumbered cat. (pl. 2; lent by Mr. and Mrs. Jacques Gelman, Mexico, D.F.).
New York. Acquavella Galleries, Inc. "Henri Matisse," November 2–December 1, 1973, no. 7 (as "Vue de Collioure," 1908, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Jacques Gelman).
Sydney. Art Gallery of New South Wales. "Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse," April 10–May 11, 1975, no. 65 (as "View of Collioure," 1908, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Jacques Gelman, Mexico City).
Melbourne. National Gallery of Victoria. "Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse," May 28–June 22, 1975, no. 65.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse," August 4–September 1, 1975, no. 65.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," December 12, 1989–April 1, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 93).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," April 19–July 15, 1990, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Fauve Landscape," February 19–May 5, 1991, extended to May 19, 1991, not in catalogue.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Henri Matisse: A Retrospective," September 24, 1992–January 12, 1993, extended to January 19, 1993, no. 97.
Paris. Centre Georges Pompidou. "Henri Matisse 1904–1917," February 25–June 21, 1993, no. 50.
Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "De Matisse à Picasso: Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman," June 18–November 1, 1994, unnumbered cat. (p. 117).
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Matisse, Picasso," September 25, 2002–January 6, 2003, no. 49.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Matisse, Picasso," February 13–May 19, 2003, no. 49.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde," May 21–September 6, 2011, no. 145.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso . . . L'aventure des Stein," October 5, 2011–January 22, 2012, no. 83.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde," February 28–June 3, 2012, no. 145.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism," October 13, 2023–January 21, 2024, unnumbered cat. (pl. 66, as "View of Collioure (Vue de Collioure)").
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism," February 25–May 27, 2024, unnumbered cat.
Charles Malpel. "Le Salon d'Automne à Paris." Le Télégramme (Autumn 1907) [excerpt published in Ref. Fourcade and Monod-Fontaine 1993, p. 444].
Léon Riotor. "Les Artistes d'Automne." Dernier Cahier de Mécislas Golberg (1908), ill. p. 180, calls it "Paysage" and notes its exhibition in the Salon d'Automne 1907.
Carl V. Petersen. "Henri Matisse. Den Stein'ske Samling hos Tetzen-Lund." Politiken (October 2, 1920) [excerpt published in English translation in Ref. Monrad 1999, p. 269].
Leo Swane. "Matisse i Tetzen-Lunds samling." Tilskueren 39, II (1922), p. 613 [excerpt published in English translation in Ref. Monrad 1999, p. 269].
Beverley Nichols. ""... To Paint in Real Flowers"." Vogue 116 (December 1950), ill. p. 105 (color, installation photo of Mrs. R. Fulton Cutting II posing in the art gallery of Prince and Princess Gourielli [Helena Rubinstein]'s New York residence).
Alfred H. Barr Jr. Matisse: His Art and His Public. New York, 1951, p. 541 (178 n. 4), publishes a list of paintings lent by Michael Stein to Fritz Gurlitt's gallery in 1914, including "Collioure à travers les arbres (landscape foliage), 92 x 65, 1907" [this painting].
Janet Flanner. "De diverses formes de beauté." L'Oeil no. 34 (October 1957), p. 29, ill. p. 31 (color), calls it "Paysage à Cagnes-sur-Mer".
Pierre Schneider with Tamara Préaud, ed. Henri Matisse: Exposition du centenaire. Exh. cat., Grand Palais. Paris, 1970, p. 74, no. 88, ill. p. 160, date it 1908; note alternate titles "Collioure vu à travers le bois de Py" and "Vitrail"; erroneously list Gertrude Stein in the provenance and Bernheim-Jeune 1910 in the exhibition history.
Yvon Taillandier. "Matisse et la préhistoire du bonheur." XXe Siècle: Hommage à Henri Matisse (1970), ill. p. 89 (color), calls it "Vue de Collioure nommée 'vitrail'" and dates it 1908.
José-Augusto França. "Matisse, 1970." Colóquio no. 59 (June 1970), pp. 22–23, ill., dates it 1908.
Gaston Diehl. Henri Matisse. Paris, 1970, unpaginated, under no. 19, p. 57, dates it 1908.
Lucile M. Golson inFour Americans in Paris: The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1970, p. 162, colorpl. 2, dates it 1908; notes that it was owned by Michael and Sarah Stein.
Massimo Carrà. L'opera di Matisse dalla rivolta 'fauve' all'intimismo, 1904–1928. Milan, 1971, pp. 90–91, no. 114, ill. and colorpl. XVI, dates it 1908.
Patrick O'Higgins. Madame: An Intimate Biography of Helena Rubinstein. New York, 1971, p. 65, ill. opp. p. 127 (installation photo, Rubinstein's New York residence).
John Hallmark Neff. "Matisse and Decoration 1906–1914: Studies of the Ceramics and the Commissions for Paintings and Stained Glass." PhD diss., Harvard University, 1974, p. 194 n. 1, notes that the Matisse family nicknamed this picture "Le Vitrail" because of the similarity of its "prominent mullion-like tree trunks and branches and large outlined masses of translucent greens" to a stained-glass window.
John Russell. "The Birth of a Wild Beast." Horizon 18 (Summer 1976), pp. 14–15, ill. (color).
John Elderfield. Matisse in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts. New York, 1978, p. 80, dates it 1908.
Malcolm Gee. Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market Between 1910 and 1930. PhD diss., Courtauld Institute of Art. New York, 1981, appendix G, pp. 94, 168, no. 64, notes that Cuttoli purchased it for Fr 60,000 at the 1929 Hôtel Drouot sale.
Reinhold Hohl inHenri Matisse. Ed. Felix Baumann. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. Zürich, 1982, p. 29, fig. 4, dates it summer 1908.
Pierre Daix. Cubists and Cubism. Geneva, 1982, pp. 36–37, ill. (color), dates it 1908.
Jack Flam. Matisse: The Man and His Art, 1869–1918. Ithaca, 1986, pp. 234, 493–94 n. 45, fig. 231 (color), dates it 1908, suggesting that it was painted from memory since Matisse was not in Collioure that year.
Maria Grazia Messina and Jolanda Nigro Covre. Il cubismo dei cubisti: Ortodossi/ eretici a Parigi intorno al 1912. Rome, 1986, p. 221, fig. 29, date it 1908.
Lennart Gottlieb. "Tetzen-Lunds samling—om dens historie, indhold og betydning." Kunst og Museum 14 (1988), p. 48.
Lawrence Gowing inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 20.
Pierre Schneider inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, pp. 28–29, suggests that this picture may be related to an unrealized project for a stained-glass window for Karl Osthaus, whom Matisse visited in the winter of 1908–9 [see Ref. Neff 1974].
Sabine Rewald inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, pp. 92–95, 304, ill. (color and bw), dates it 1907–8, suggesting that it was painted from memory in the winter "when Matisse's impressions of the summer spent in Collioure were still fresh"; notes that the Archives Matisse date it 1907; reproduces a photograph of the approximate site, identified as above the rock called the "Roca-Alta d'en Beille".
William S. Lieberman inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, pp. 3, 9, fig. 3 (color, installation photo).
John Elderfield. Henri Matisse: A Retrospective. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1992, p. 171, no. 90, ill. (color), dates it Collioure, summer 1907 or Paris, 1907–8.
Dominique Fourcade and Isabelle Monod-Fontaine. Henri Matisse 1904–1917. Exh. cat., Centre Georges Pompidou. Paris, 1993, pp. 77, 224–25, 441, no. 50, ill. (color and bw), date it Collioure, summer 1907 or Paris, 1907–8; tentatively list it as no. 43 in the Bernheim-Jeune 1910 exhibition [but see Ref. Monrad 1999].
Sophie Monneret. Matisse. Paris, 1994, p. 93, no. 122, ill., calls it "Vue de Collioure (Le Vitrail ou Collioure à travers les arbres)"; tentatively dates it 1907–8.
Patrick-Gilles Persin. "La Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman." L'Œil no. 465 (October 1994), pp. 48–49, ill. (color), dates it 1907–8.
Hilary Spurling. The Unknown Matisse. A Life of Henri Matisse: The Early Years, 1869–1908. New York, 1998, pp. 400–401.
Kasper Monrad, ed. Henri Matisse and Great Danish Collectors. Exh. cat., State Hermitage Museum. St. Petersburg, 1998, pp. 36, 48, 74, no. 8, ill. (color and bw).
Judith H. Dobrzynski. "20th Century Art Treasures Are Left to Met." New York Times (May 6, 1998), p. B6.
William S. Lieberman. "Donation Gelman: l'École de Paris au Metropolitan." Connaissance des arts no. 554 (October 1998), p. 105, fig. 4 (color), calls it "Vue de Collioure (Le Vitrail)".
Sabine Rewald. "A Sailor's Yarn." Art in America 87 (October 1999), pp. 120–21, ill. (color).
Kasper Monrad inHenri Matisse: Four Great Collectors. Ed. Kasper Monrad. Exh. cat., Statens Museum for Kunst. Copenhagen, 1999, pp. 144–45, 150, 269–70, no. 56, ill. in color, pp. 29, 128, 269, dates it summer 1907, adding that it is the only landscape from this year, and notes its inclusion in the 1907 Salon d'Automne; states that this picture has often been erroneously identified in Matisse's 1910 Bernheim-Jeune exhibition; states that Hans Purrmann claimed the Stein collection of Matisses, including this picture, from Gurlitt in 1919 on the Steins' behalf and returned the pictures to Paris, but that the Steins had already arranged their sale to Tetzen-Lund in 1918.
Sabine Rewald in "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 1999–2000." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 58 (Fall 2000), p. 54, ill. (color), calls it "View of Collioure and the Sea".
Roberta Smith. "In a Brash Yet Refined School, Everyone Belongs Together." New York Times (June 15, 2001), p. E37, calls it "View of Collioure and the Sea".
Pierre Schneider. Matisse. Rev. ed. (English ed., 1984). Paris, 2002, pp. 322, 450, ill. p. 443, dates it 1907–8; erroneously states that it once belonged to Pierre Bonnard; identifies the same landscape framed by the window in "Interior with Eggplants" (1911; Musée de Grenoble).
Isabelle Monod-Fontaine inMatisse, Picasso. Exh. cat., Tate Modern. London, 2002, pp. 87–88, 347 nn. 6, 10, no. 49, ill. pp. 86, 92 (color), states that it was begun in early summer 1907, in Collioure; notes that it appears in its nearly finished state in a photograph that may have been shown to Derain in July 1907 [see Ref. Fourcade and Monod-Fontaine 1993, p. 77]; considers it likely that Picasso saw this picture at the Salon d'Automne of 1907.
Suzanne Slesin. Over the Top. Helena Rubinstein: Extraordinary Style, Beauty, Art, Fashion Design. New York, 2003, pp. 12, 15, ill. p. 175 (color, installation photo, Rubinstein's New York residence), dates it about 1911.
Joséphine Matamoros inMatisse-Derain: Collioure 1905, un été fauve. Exh. cat., Musée départemental d'Art moderne, Céret. [Paris], 2005, p. 22.
Jack Flam inMatisse-Derain: Collioure 1905, un été fauve. Exh. cat., Musée départemental d'Art moderne, Céret. [Paris], 2005, pp. 47, 251, no. 199, ill. (color and bw), calls it "Vue de Collioure (le vitrail)"; identifies the site as le bois d'Ernest Py, Roca-Alta d'Ambeille.
Claudine Grammont inMatisse-Derain: Collioure 1905, un été fauve. Exh. cat., Musée départemental d'Art moderne, Céret. [Paris], 2005, p. 284.
Rémi Labrusse and Jacqueline Munck. Matisse-Derain: La Vérité du fauvisme. Paris, 2005, pp. 295, 299, 304.
Rémi Labrusse in Rémi Labrusse and Jacqueline Munck. Matisse-Derain: La Vérité du fauvisme. Paris, 2005, p. 67, colorpl. 48, calls it "Vue de Collioure (Le Vitrail)" and dates it end of summer or autumn 1907.
Claudine Grammont inThe Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde. Ed. Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 2011, pp. 151, 161, states that the Steins purchased this picture in the fall of 1907; surmises that the Steins' Matisse pictures were probably still in Gurlitt's gallery when Michael Stein compiled a 1916 inventory of the works; refutes the idea that Purrmann arranged for the return of the Steins' Matisses to Paris [see Ref. Monrad 1999]; quotes Purrmann's 1946 recollection that he did not learn of the Steins' sale of their Matisses to Tetzen-Lund until after the fact [Hans Purrmann, "Über Henri Matisse," Werk, vol. 33, June 1946, p. 190].
Robert McD. Parker and Maxime Touillet inThe Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde. Ed. Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 2011, pl. 372 (installation photo, Stein apartment, Paris).
Robert McD. Parker inThe Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde. Ed. Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 2011, pp. 417, 462, no. 145, states that Purrmann negotiated the sale of the Steins' Matisse pictures to Tetzen-Lund.
Janet Bishop, Cécile Debray, and Rebecca Rabinow, ed. The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco, 2011, p. 201, colorpl. 158.
Claudine Grammont inGeorges Braque, 1882–1963. Ed. Brigitte Leal, Gary Tinterow, and Alison de Lima Greene. Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Galeries nationales. Paris, 2013, p. 23, fig. 5 (color).
Jeffrey Wechsler. "Mohan Samant: Individualism and Context." Mohan Samant: Paintings. Ahmedabad, 2013, p. 352, fig. 8 (color).
Mason Klein. Helena Rubinstein: Beauty is Power. Exh. cat., Jewish Museum. New York, 2014, ill. pp. 42 (color), 110 (color, installation photo, Ref. Nichols 1950).
Roberta Smith. "They Turned the Sky Green and Yellow." New York Times (November 10, 2023), p. C1, ill. (color).
James Panero. "A Study in Contrasts." New Criterion 42 (December 2023), p. 15.
Henri Matisse (French, Le Cateau-Cambrésis 1869–1954 Nice)
1912
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