Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/henri-matisse-1593" aria-label="More by Henri Matisse" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Henri Matisse</a>
NotreDame
Purchased 1949
adults
architecture
boat, barge
bridge
bridges and viaducts
cathedral
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
crowd
figure
France
groups
natural features (non-UK)
natural phenomena
Paris, 14th arrondissement
Paris, 14th arrondissement, Notre-Dame
people
places
religious
river
River Seine
smoke
society
square
townscapes / man-made features
transport: water
water: inland
<p>Matisse painted numerous views of Notre-Dame, which he could see from his studio window in Paris. The cathedral glows in the sunlight, and a glancing shadow indicates that it is midday. By contrast, the river beneath is dark and richly coloured. A plume of smoke from the riverboats rises in front of the cathedral, linking the industrial and spiritual aspects of the city. This atmospheric detail echoes Impressionism. However, the painting's touches of strong, sometimes seemingly arbitrary colour, anticipate Matisse's later Fauvist work.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
13 September 2006 – 16 September 2007
2007-09-16
13 September 2006 – 7 January 2007
2007-01-07
2006-09-13
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
17 February 2007 – 13 May 2007
2007-05-13
2007-02-17
The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, USA)
http://www.artic.edu/aic
11 June 2007 – 16 September 2007
2007-09-16
2007-06-11
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
2006-09-13
Ambroise Vollard: Patron of the Avant - Garde
Loan-out
2 October 2010 – 30 January 2011
2011-01-30
2 October 2010 – 30 January 2011
2011-01-30
2010-10-02
Museum Folkwang (Essen, Germany)
2010-10-02
Bilder Einer Metropole, die Impressionisten in Paris
Loan-out
7 March 2012 – 17 March 2013
2013-03-17
14 July 2012 – 28 October 2012
2012-10-28
2012-07-14
Statens Museum for Kunst (Copenhagen, Denmark)
3 December 2012 – 17 March 2013
2013-03-17
2012-12-03
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
2012-03-07
Henri Matisse: Pair/Unpaired
Loan-out
19 September 2013 – 12 January 2014
2014-01-12
19 September 2013 – 12 January 2014
2014-01-12
2013-09-19
Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria)
http://www.albertina.at/en
2013-09-19
Henri Matisse and the Fauves
Loan-out
28 March 2015 – 16 August 2015
2015-08-16
28 March 2015 – 16 August 2015
2015-08-16
2015-03-28
Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
2015-03-28
Henri Matisse. Cut Out, the final works
Loan-out
14 October 2017 – 31 January 2021
2021-01-31
14 October 2017 – 31 January 2021
2021-01-31
2017-10-14
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2017-10-14
Modern Art and St Ives
Collection based display
Notre-Dame
support: 460 × 375 mm
frame: 689 × 608 × 81 mm
Purchased 1949
<p>Matisse painted numerous views of Notre-Dame, which he could see from his studio window in Paris. The cathedral glows in the sunlight, and a glancing shadow indicates that it is midday. By contrast, the river beneath is dark and richly coloured. A plume of smoke from the riverboats rises in front of the cathedral, linking the industrial and spiritual aspects of the city. This atmospheric detail echoes <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impressionism" title="Glossary definition for 'Impressionism'"><span>Impressionism</span></a>. However, the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>'s touches of strong, sometimes seemingly arbitrary colour, anticipate Matisse's later <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/fauvism" title="Glossary definition for 'Fauvism'"><span>Fauvist</span></a> work.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-27T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Henri Matisse</b><span> 1869-1954 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/matisse-notre-dame-n05905" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05905</span></a> </span><b>Notre-Dame</b><span>
</span><i>c</i><span>.1900 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'Matisse' b.r.</span>
<br/><span>Oil on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>, 18 1/8 x 14 3/4 (46 x 37.5)</span>
<br/><span>Purchased from Alfred Klein through the Galerie Rousso, Paris (Courtauld Fund) 1949</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Alfred Klein, Paris and Le Cannet (purchased from the artist?)</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Matisse 1869-1954</i><span>, Hayward Gallery, London, July-September 1968 (14, repr.)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., </span><i>Matisse: his Art and his Public</i><span>
(New York 1951), pp.51, 69; Douglas Cooper, 'Catalogue of the Courtauld Collection' in </span><i>Burlington Magazine</i><span>, XCVI, 1954, p.121; Gaston Diehl, </span><i>Henri Matisse</i><span> (Paris 1954), p.133; John Jacobus, </span><i>Henri Matisse</i><span> (London 1973), p.96, repr. p.97 in colour</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
</span><i>The Listener</i><span>, XLIV, 1950, p.583; Vlastimil Fiala, </span><i>Henri Matisse</i><span> (Bratislava 1967), pl.5 in colour </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>On being shown a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> of this picture in 1950, Matisse said that it was painted in 1900 from the window of his apartment at the Quai St Michel in Paris. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>While he was living at 19 Quai St Michel from 1899 to 1907 he painted at least twelve oils of more or less this view (information from Mme Marguerite G. Duthuit), as well as several others looking left towards the Pont St Michel and the Palais de Justice. These early pictures of Notre-Dame are all fairly small (up to a maximum of 73 x 60cm) and are sometimes upright, sometimes landscape-shaped. As none is dated, it is difficult to date them precisely and place them in sequence, but it seems likely on style that they were all executed between 1899 and 1902, or at the latest 1904. The two earliest would appear to be 'Notre-Dame with a Tug-boat' (no.31 in the Matisse exhibition at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1970) and 'Notre-Dame' (sold at Sotheby's on 4 December 1968, lot 62 repr.), both of which are still <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impressionism" title="Glossary definition for 'Impressionism'"><span>Impressionistic</span></a> and pre-<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/fauvism" title="Glossary definition for 'Fauvism'"><span>Fauve</span></a> in treatment, with silvery greys and blues. The Tate's picture, with its much stronger, more arbitrary colours, is clearly later and could well have been painted in 1900. The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> most similar to it is a slightly smaller (40 x 33cm) and sketchier <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> at present in the Mr and Mrs Alex M. Lewyt collection, New York, which has a predominance of pink and green. As most of these pictures differ widely in style, size and composition, it seems unlikely that Matisse thought of them as a series. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>In 1913 he again leased rooms at 19 Quai St Michel, which he kept as a pied-à-terre in Paris until after World War I, and in 1914 he painted two further, much larger pictures of this same view, each measuring 145 x 98cm. One of these, presumably the first (no.125 in the Grand Palais exhibition), is still quite straightforward and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/representational" title="Glossary definition for 'Representational'"><span>representational</span></a> in treatment, but the other (now in the Museum of Modern Art, New York) is highly simplified and almost <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/abstract-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Abstract art'"><span>abstract</span></a>, so that the whole character of the motif is mysteriously transformed. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Although the Gallery was told by the Galerie Rousso in 1950, when this picture was acquired, that the previous owner Alfred Klein had bought it direct from the artist, M. Klein was unable to confirm this when asked in 1970. He could not remember for certain where he had bought it, but thought it was more likely to have been from an auction about 1930. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.492, reproduced p.492</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture boat, barge bridge bridges and viaducts cathedral cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents crowd figure France groups natural features (non-UK) natural phenomena Paris, 14th arrondissement Paris, 14th arrondissement, Notre-Dame people places religious river River Seine smoke society square townscapes / man-made features transport: water water: inland