[MATISSE, Henri]

Verve. Revue artistique et littéraire ... Vol. VI, Nos 21 et 22 [a double issue]

Paris, Éditions de la revue Verve, 1948.

Large quarto (355 × 265 mm), [72] pages including the flyleaves (first two pages and last page blank) with a frontispiece (an original colour lithograph), 24 full-page colour plates and 40 pages of floral decorations (all by Matisse).

Flush-cut papered boards; a fine copy with the Matisse-designed dustwrapper a little rubbed and bumped, with minimal loss or wear to the head and foot of the spine and the corner tips; rear panel a little marked, with slight surface loss near the bottom corner.

Published in Paris in both French and English editions under the directorship of E. Teriade (an ex-patriate Greek, Efstatios Eleftheriades), 'Verve' was 'devoted to artistic creation in all fields and in all forms'. 'That the illustrations may retain the import of the originals, "Verve" will utilize the technical methods best suited to each reproduction. It will call on the best specialists of heliogravure in colors and in black and white, as well as of typography, and will not disdain to employ the forgotten process of lithography. The luxuriousness of "Verve" will consist in the publication of documents as fully and as perfectly as possible' (manifesto in the first issue in December 1937). This double issue continues to fulfil that early promise: it is devoted exclusively to Henri Matisse, in particular to paintings he produced in Vence in the south-east of France between 1944 and 1948. The dustwrapper, the frontispiece (an original colour lithograph) and the interconnecting drawings ('J'ai dessiné les ornements dans le jardin') were produced especially for this volume.