Artwork Page for The Cyclops

Details / Information for The Cyclops

Series Title: James Joyce's "Ulysses"

The Cyclops

1935

Henri Matisse

(French, 1869–1954)
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Culture
America
Medium
softground etching
Measurements
Platemark: 28.5 x 22.5 cm (11 1/4 x 8 7/8 in.); Sheet: 41.8 x 32 cm (16 7/16 x 12 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1935.280.3
Catalogue raisonné
Duthuit Vol.I, Matisse 239
Copyright
© Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print

Description

When asked to illustrate a new edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, Henri Matisse chose to depict six episodes from The Odyssey, the ancient Greek epic by Homer that inspired Joyce. Here, we see Ulysses’s fight with the one-eyed giant Polyphemus. This print belongs to a portfolio published alongside the book by the Limited Edition Club. Its founder and editor, George Macy, commissioned the illustrations soon after a 1933 ruling lifting the US ban on Joyce’s novel, establishing that it was not obscene in a legal sense and had literary merit. Although Matisse’s decision was unpopular with Macy’s subscribers, his images made the publication one of the most sought-after illustrated books of the 1900s.

The Cyclops

1935

Henri Matisse

(French, 1869–1954)
America

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