Henri Matisse: Icarus, 1947 – Porcelain Art Mug

Between 1943 and 1947, while recovering from major surgery and largely confined to his rooms in Vence, Henri Matisse worked almost entirely with scissors. Sheets of paper were painted in flat gouache to his instruction; he then cut into them directly, drawing with the blade rather than the pencil — "cutting directly into colour," as he put it. Jazz, published by Tériade in Paris in 1947, was the first public appearance of the method: twenty plates printed in pochoir, each colour brushed through a stencil in the same gouache tones Matisse had cut, interleaved with pages reproducing his own large handwriting.

Icarus is plate VIII. A dark figure falls against a field of deep blue, the heart a single red disc, yellow stars scattered around it — one of them cut so freely that it runs off the blue and onto the bare paper. The myth of the boy who flew too near the sun becomes, in Matisse's hands, not a warning but an image of flight itself. Facing the plate in the book, on page 54, Matisse asks in his own hand: « Ne devrait-on pas faire accomplir un grand voyage en avion aux jeunes gens ayant terminé leurs études ? » — "Should not young people who have finished their studies be sent on a great journey by aeroplane?" The mug carries the plate alone; the fourth product image shows the opening it comes from, handwriting and all.

Fine porcelain, 10 oz — 104 mm high, 75 mm across the base. The image runs around the body; handle and rim stay white. Dishwasher and microwave safe.

From the same series: La Gerbe, 1953 · Self-Portrait, 1930 · The Snail, 1953 · Blue Nude II, 1952 · Nuit de Noël, 1952 · Les Velours, 1947 · La Danse, 1909 · La Danse (Barnes Mural), 1933

Henri Matisse, Icare, plate VIII from Jazz, Paris, Tériade, 1947; pochoir. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Réserve des livres rares, RES G-Z-165. Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France. Public domain in Switzerland, the EU and the United Kingdom; Matisse died in 1954. This mug is not sold into the United States.

Selected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.