Yaneff.com

Here we see the brilliance of Matisse using his two favorite techniques. He combines his inventive pure colour cut-outs with his use of simplified forms, drawn in bold single strokes using a broad brush, to announce the annual ball of the School of Decorative Arts.

“Madame de Pompadour reçoit le Mardi 20 Novembre 1951 au Pavillon de Marsan... the élégie of the school of Les Arts Décoratifs was having an ball... literally! a banquet thrown by the president of France... everyone was there! Nothing like the mistress of the King to bring out the shaper tongues." (mourloteditions.com)

"The abstracted simplicity of form and the flat areas of colour pattern which Matisse created with collages of paper during the period at the beginning of the 1950's mark one of the most inspired moments in his career as an artist. Rhythms of colour used in a manner which went far beyond the merely visual had been a vital element of his art from some 25 years earlier. However it was in the period of the 'cut-paper' compositions that he was able to see a way of taking them even further into the area of an independent non-descriptive, effectively abstract, role...All the prints from this 'cut-paper' period were created by Matisse making a 'maquette', which was then transferred to lithographic stones at the studio of Mourlot." (Weston)

During the 1950s the renowned French printer, Mourlot Freres, printed most of the "original" posters of the most important artists of the day. In 1959 they printed the series "Affiches Originales" for collectors. They are reduced lithographic versions of the "original" posters created by the contemporary masters, Picasso, Chagall, Braque, Matisse, Miro, Leger, and Dufy.