The Circus (Le Cirque) by Henri Matisse from his famous Jazz series, complete with a striking black dancing figure on a blue and yellow background.
This iconic work was created in July 1946 and was officially released in 1947 as part of his groundbreaking album Jazz. The album Jazz is one of the most significant works of Matisse's late creative period, when he traded the classic brush for scissors due to serious health problems.
Technique: The original model was created using the collage technique of paper colored with gouache (so-called gouaches découpées). The album was printed into book form using stencils (the pochoir technique), which perfectly preserved the saturation of the original colors.
Motif: The work depicts a dynamic, black silhouette of an acrobat or dancer on a white trapeze, surrounded by contrasting blue, yellow and red areas. The word "CIRQUE" itself appears twice, made up of cut-out letters.
This is a very popular motif that is still owned and exhibited by leading world museums such as MoMA in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
