For the first time in more than a century, visitors can travel back to the debut of Henri Matisse’s painting Femme au chapeau in the 1905 Salon d’Automne in Paris, a presentation that changed the landscape of modern art forever. Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal showcases the storied painting within the rich context of its original groundbreaking debut.
Renowned for his revolutionary use of intense colors and carefree brushstrokes, painter Henri Matisse is recognized today as a leader of Fauvism: the first French avant-garde art movement to emerge in the 20th century. Initially, however, he faced his fair share of skepticism from the public and critics alike.
Though the painting first repelled viewers with its raucous colors and techniques that broke from tradition, Matisse’s portrait of his wife, Amélie, would go on to inspire artists to create their own compositions of women in hats, some directly in conversation with his work in subject, color, or style.
The restaging of Femme au chapeau as it appeared in Gallery VII of the Paris Salon d’Automne, alongside works by all 10 of the artists featured in the original presentation, is a highlight of this exhibition. Janet Bishop, SFMOMA’s Thomas Weisel Family Chief Curator, underscores Femme au chapeau as “arguably… [the] most art-historically significant work of art” in the museum’s collection. “The exhibition will shed light on the painting in more detail than ever before,” Bishop says, “from its public debut in Paris, in 1905, to its years as a must-see painting in Leo and Gertrude Stein’s Left Bank apartment, and, eventually to the walls of SFMOMA.”
Sections dedicated to Amélie Matisse and the broader fashion of headwear at the time, as well as animated large-scale projections of both the Grand Palais and Leo and Gertrude Stein’s Left Bank apartment, add color to the fascinating story of this seminal work.
Another section considers Femme au chapeau’s lasting impact on artists past and present, from Matisse contemporaries like Jacqueline Marval and Kees Van Dongen to subsequent generations of artists including Richard Diebenkorn and David Hockney.
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to witness a work that broke from painting tradition only to create an entirely new one. Through 90 works by more than 40 artists from the early 1900s to today, Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal tells the full story of this masterwork, which has never been told until now.
Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal runs through September 13 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third Street, San Francisco. For tickets, please visit www.sfmoma.org.
