The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 12, 2025

Tulips

1914

Henri Matisse

(French, 1869–1954)
France
oil on canvas
Unframed: 95.6 x 70.8 cm (37 5/8 x 27 7/8 in.)
Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.111
© Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: 223 20th Century Avant-Garde

Did You Know?

Matisse once wrote that he felt as though all the natural charm was lost from a bouquet of flowers picked from his garden when he arranged them.

Description

At first glance, this painting is a straightforward still life in which the glow of red blossoms is heightened by a cool green and turquoise interior. Knowing that Tulips was painted in the spring of 1914 shortly before the outbreak of World War I, however, suggests a melancholy atmosphere. In this context, the dark vertical stripe behind the flowers has been interpreted as symbolic of the threat of war.
  • 1914
    Collection of the Artist
    1914
    (Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, France, April 4, 1914, acquired from the artist)
    1914
    (Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, France, June 5, 1914, sold to Fritz Gurlitt)
    possibly by 1930
    (Galerie Thannhauser, Berlin Germany)
    by 1931
    (Galerien Mattiesen, Berlin, Germany sold to Karl Bett)
    about 1985
    Karl Bett, Berlin, Germany and Hampstead, London, sold to Marlborough Fine Art, London, and E.V. Thaw and Co., New York, NY
    1996
    (Sold at Christie's New York, NY, April 30, 1996, lot 52)
    May 7, 2001
    (Sold at Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg, New York, NY, May 7, 2001, lot 36)
    ?
    Private collection, New York, NY
    ?
    Richard Feigen and Co., New York, NY
    2001–2020
    Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2020–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 According to Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, Matisse: Henri Matisse chez Bernheim-Jeune (Paris: Bernheim-Jeune, 1995), vol. I, p. 533, cat. no. 141, ill.
    2 This painting was included in the exhibition “Henri Matisse,” at the Galerien Thannhauser, Berlin, in 1930, cat. no. 24. See also Masters of the 19th and 20th Centuries (New York: Marlborough Gallery, 1986), cat. no. 31.
    3 “Henri Matisse,” Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland, August 9 – September 15, 1931, cat. no. 43, noted this painting was in the Collection de Monsieur Karl Bett, Berlin.
    4 Provenance between 1930 and 1996 is according to Masters of the 19th and 20th Centuries (New York: Marlborough Gallery, 1986), cat. no. 31, and documentation supplied by Richard Feigen and Co. in the curatorial file. 
  • Purrmann, Hans. Henri Matisse. Berlin, Germany: Galerien Thannhauser, 1930. Mentioned: p. 16, no. 24
    Henri Matisse. Kunsthalle, Basel, 9. August-15 September 1931. Basel: Kunsthalle, 1931. Mentioned: P. 12, no. 43
    Flam, Jack D. Matisse, the Man and His Art, 1869-1918. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986. Mentioned: P. 380; Reproduced: P. 384, fig. 381
    Masters of the 19th and 20th Centuries: 5 November-2 December 1986, Marlborough Gallery, Inc. New York, N.Y.: Marlborough Gallery, 1986. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 31
    Dauberville, Guy-Patrice, and Michel Dauberville. Matisse: Henri Matisse chez Bernheim-Jeune. Paris, France: Bernheim-Jeune, 1995. Reproduced: Vol. 1, P. 533, no. 141
    “A Historic Gift. Longtime CMA supporters Joseph and Nancy Keithley give 114 works, the largest gift in more than 60 years.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 60, no. 3 (Summer 2020): Cover, 6-9. Reproduced: P. 8; Mentioned: P. 7.
    Robinson, William H. "Modern European Painting." In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 132-139, 142-149. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 138-139; Mentioned: p. 267
    Brown, Heather Lemonedes. “Color, Sensation, and Memory: Themes in the Keithleys’ gift and promised gift.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 62, no. 3, 2022: 4-7. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 5.
    "Exhibitions: Transformative Gift." Art & Antiques XLV, no. 10 (November 2022): 48-53. Mentioned: p. 50
  • Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
    Masters of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY (November 5–December 2, 1986).
    Henri Matisse. Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland (August 9–September 15, 1931).
    Henri Matisse. Galerien Thannhauser, Berlin, Germany (1930).
  • {{cite web|title=Tulips|url=false|author=Henri Matisse|year=1914|access-date=12 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.111