Henri Matisse, world famous as a painter, was equally at home in the demanding techniques of the various graphic media. Lithographs, etchings, monotypes and book illustrations, all carry his characteristic stamp: the fluid, rounded line, the mercurial blending of figures with their background. Here for the first time, are gathered his principal graphic works: miniature portraits of his friends and his family, the fine line of etching catching character and mood; early studies of nudes; large lithograph sheets of lush odalisques, the epitome of fauve depiction; white-line linoleum cuts designed by the artist to accompany, explain and heighten the words of some of his favorite books; and the electrifying slashes and surfaces of color that Matisse so thrillingly combined in his Jazz sequence. In his text to the reproductions, William S. Lieberman traces the progress of Matisse's works in the graphic medium.
