BMA Presents Matisse Prints and Drawings

New Arrivals exhibition recognizes BMA’s continued relationship with the Matisse family

BALTIMORE, MD (December 3, 2015)—The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) presents a sublime exhibition of works by Henri Matisse, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. On view December 9, 2015-July 3, 2016, New Arrivals: Matisse Prints & Drawings features approximately 40 recently acquired prints and drawings, most bestowed to the BMA by the collection of Matisse’s daughter, Marguerite Matisse Duthuit, and The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation in New York. The exhibition—one of nine celebrating the museum’s enormously successful Campaign for Art—demonstrates the legacy of renowned collectors Etta and Claribel Cone and the BMA’s continued relationship with members of the Matisse family.

“Etta and Claribel Cone’s dedication to collecting the art of Matisse established at the BMA one of the most comprehensive collections of the artist’s work,” said Jay Fisher, Interim Co-Director and Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs. “The close personal relationship between the artist and the Cone sisters provided the opportunity to acquire key works from the late ’20s and early ’30s, while encouraging Etta to collect all aspects of his work—painting, sculpture, and graphic arts.”

Recognizing the unique character of the BMA’s Matisse collection, the artist’s family has made significant gifts that have added breadth to the museum’s collection. This support, which has included loans for major exhibitions such as Matisse: Painter as Sculptor, has enabled the BMA to organize exhibitions and undertake new research on the artist. In conjunction with the museum’s 100th anniversary, a special gallery in the Cone Collection galleries was dedicated to Marguerite Matisse Duthuit, and her son, Claude Duthuit.

Most recently, significant gifts have been made to strengthen the museum’s collection of Matisse prints, establishing it as the most comprehensive collection of the artist’s prints in North America. The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation has made a promised gift of an impressive group of more than 80 prints from Matisse’s later years, after Etta Cone’s collecting came to a close. In addition, the BMA has received a major gift from the collection of Marguerite Matisse Duthuit—prints as well as remarkable drawings related to a masterwork painting from the Cone Collection, The Yellow Dress.

This exhibition is curated by Jay Fisher, Interim Co-Director and Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, and generously sponsored by George R. Barth, in memory of Dr. George R. Stanley.

New Arrivals Series
The BMA’s enormously successful Campaign for Art has secured more than 4,000 objects during the past decade in honor of the museum’s 100th anniversary in 2014. These gifts have joined the museum’s renowned collection—now 95,000 objects—most of which came from generous donors in this community. To celebrate these new gifts and their donors, the BMA is presenting a series of New Arrivals exhibitions and installations in nearly every area of the museum from September 2015 through May 2016.

Matisse at The Baltimore Museum of Art
The BMA has the largest and most comprehensive collection of works by Henri Matisse outside of France with more than 1,000 works by the artist. This extraordinary collection began with a gift of more than 600 Matisse works from Baltimore sisters Claribel and Etta Cone, who had visited the Paris studios of Matisse and Pablo Picasso in the early 20th century and began forming one of the world’s greatest collections of modern art. Over the course of nearly 50 years, they assembled an exceptional collection of approximately 3,000 objects, which were displayed in their Baltimore apartments. Etta Cone met Matisse in 1906, and her initial purchase of several drawings marked the beginning of a life-long passion for his art that continued throughout his career. The collection came to the BMA upon Etta’s death in 1949, and has been on view since 1957. The collection has been the subject of exhibitions at prestigious museums around the world and celebrated in Baltimore with redesigned and expanded galleries that include a dynamic touch-screen virtual tour of the apartments where the Cone sisters lived with their remarkable collection. In recent years, the BMA has conducted ground-breaking research on Matisse’s sculpture and organized major traveling exhibitions with accompanying catalogues on Matisse’s sculpture and prints.

About the Baltimore Museum of Art

Founded in 1914, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) inspires people of all ages and backgrounds through exhibitions, programs, and collections that tell an expansive story of art—challenging long-held narratives and embracing new voices. Our outstanding collection of more than 97,000 objects spans many eras and cultures and includes the world’s largest public holding of works by Henri Matisse; one of the nation’s finest collections of prints, drawings, and photographs; and a rapidly growing number of works by contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds. The museum is also distinguished by a neoclassical building designed by American architect John Russell Pope and two beautifully landscaped gardens featuring an array of modern and contemporary sculpture. The BMA is located three miles north of the Inner Harbor, adjacent to the main campus of Johns Hopkins University, and has a community branch at Lexington Market. General admission is free so that everyone can enjoy the power of art.