Matisse: Radical Invention 1913-1917

Matisse claimed, on his deathbed, that the period between 1913 and 1917 was ‘pivotal’ in his artistic career. 

Using extensive new historical, technical and scientific research Matisse: Radical Invention 1913-1917 - an exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago until 20 June 2010 - makes exciting revelations about the artist's techniques, methods and studio practices which show clear connections between the work produced during a period previously dismissed as an anomaly in his development, and that of the rest of his career.

Among the great connections made are those in the methods used to produce the masterpieces Bathers by a River (1913) and The Moroccans (1915-6); the process of layering paint and working it until the image was perfected was used for both these images, instead of the conventional process of reproducing an image from a sketch.