Matisse: Printmaker

Henri Matisse is universally known for his painting, but he also worked regularly as an engraver between 1900 and his death in 1954. His engraving work encompasses more than eight hundred pieces that comprise a gigantic visual library, offering a complete document about his working process and his way of transforming what he saw into art.

This book, published as part of the exhibition "Matisse: Grabador" ("Matisse: Engraver") at the Fundacion Canal de Madrid, includes 63 of his engravings, in which we can identify the same observation process that the artist followed in his drawings. This is a fascinating work that reveals a different Matisse, one that is more intimate and close, yet each work contains the keys of his universal genius.

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) wrote, in eloquent language, that the important thing for an artist is to express themselves in multiple formats: painting, sculpture, drawing and engravings. His mastery of the use of colour and drawing in all of these fields made him one of the great artists of the 20th century.