Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and other luminaries of modern art take centre stage at the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Art Gallery this summer. (on now to Sep. 30) features nearly 50 paintings, sculpture and drawings from one of the worlds great holdings of early European Modernism. In fact, the highlight of the Cone Collection is a group of works by Henri Matisse, providing a rare overview of one of the most acclaimed artists of the 20th century and making The Baltimore Museum of Arts Matisse collection the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Etta and Claribel Cone were ardent and early patrons of the French avantgarde, meeting Matisse, Pablo Picasso and other artists during their trips to Paris in the first decade of the twentieth century. This exclusive Canadian presentation includes a selection of 27 signature works by Matisse, most notably Matisses Large Reclining Nude (pictured) displaying the daring scale, simplified forms, and bold, flat planes of colour with which the artist treated the female form in the 1930s. It also features Picassos haunting Blue Period Woman with Bangs, and Gauguins Tahitian masterpiece Vahine no te vi (Woman of the Mango).
