These lithographs were begun in 1950, almost at the end of the artist's life, and are from the only edition of lithographs of the cut-outs produced directly by Matisse working with Mourlot. The images reproduce his iconic pochoir designs and were incorporated into a volume of the French portfolio Verve, ‘Dernieres Oeuvres de Matisse’, also known as Verve 35/36, celebrating his last works and published posthumously by Teriade in Paris in 1958.

One of Matisse's most acclaimed cut-outs, he considered Tristesse du Roi equal to his greatest paintings and turned down numerous requests from collectors and museums to purchase the work. Georges Salles, Director of the Museums of France, had seen the piece in the artist's studio before its official unveiling at the Salon de Mai in 1952, and had immediately enlisted the aid of Jean Cassou - writer, critic and director of the Musée National d'Art Moderne - in negotiating to acquire it for the nation. Matisse was finally persuaded to sell the work to the MNAM in late 1953. It now resides in the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Tristesse du Roi is often thought of as Matisse's final self portrait. Above all else it reflects upon old age and the power of memory. Matisse's great idols Titian, Rembrandt, Poussin and Renoir had all reckoned with this "end-of-life game" in their final works, and here we find him measuring himself up to his predecessors. Despite the fierce jubilation of the colours and revolutionary cut-out technique employed to create the scene, Matisse's composition is a monument to the serenity and splendour that his work had attained at the very end of his life. The artist had been considering a project to create illustrations for the Song of Songs at around this time, and the influence of this idea can be found throughout Tristesse du Roi. The Biblical story of Salome dancing before Herod is also a key reference point.

The original cut-out belongs to the great flowering of papiers découpés that Matisse created in 1952, including the legendary Blue Nudes. Tristesse du Roi, with its sumptuous atmosphere of ultramarine blue and dazzling ingenuity of forms, should be seen as intimately linked to these critical works within the artist's oeuvre. As the cut-out is one of the treasures of Matisse's collaged works, so the lithograph is one of the most important and desirable entries in the Verve portfolio.

The lithographs are in stunning condition and are becoming extremely scarce.

Referenced in the Catalogue Raisonne: Duthuit 139. Freitag 6231