Apollo
Artist: Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)
Date: 1953
Dimensions:
131 1/2 x 167 1/2 in. (334 x 425.4 cm)
Medium: Ceramic tile in plaster with ground marble
Classification: Ceramics
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1983.40
Label Text:Apollo refers to the Greek god who is often associated with the sun, the arts, healing, and prophecy. He is depicted here by a blissful face in the center, crowned by the radiant sun. The god presides over a joyful world of intense color and lively plant forms. The embracing blue columns, as well as the overall symmetry, contribute to the mural’s sense of harmony and order.
Matisse closely supervised the transposing of his cut-paper design to ceramic tiles for this mural. He divided the composition into sections to help unify it and to form manageable units of heavy ceramic and masonry materials. The ceramicist J. L. Artigas (Spanish, 1892–1980) made the colored tiles using glaze equivalents for Matisse’s opaque watercolor pigments. Matisse himself painted the face and his signature on glazed white tiles before they were fired in a kiln. Each panel is made of steel-framed concrete covered with plaster into which the tiles were set.
Matisse closely supervised the transposing of his cut-paper design to ceramic tiles for this mural. He divided the composition into sections to help unify it and to form manageable units of heavy ceramic and masonry materials. The ceramicist J. L. Artigas (Spanish, 1892–1980) made the colored tiles using glaze equivalents for Matisse’s opaque watercolor pigments. Matisse himself painted the face and his signature on glazed white tiles before they were fired in a kiln. Each panel is made of steel-framed concrete covered with plaster into which the tiles were set.
On view
In Collection(s)