Acquavella Galleries

Acquavella Galleries Impressionist, Modern & Contemporary Masters

A few images of our Matisse exhibition which closed last week! Photographer captured the energy of the galleries during...
05/28/2026

A few images of our Matisse exhibition which closed last week!

Photographer captured the energy of the galleries during the show—over six weeks, we welcomed nearly 40,000 visitors to the exhibition.

05/26/2026

From April 8 through May 22, we were delighted to welcome nearly 40,000 visitors to our spring exhibition, “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony.”

For those unable to experience the exhibition in person, we invite you to join art historian John Klein for a virtual tour of the show.

Chair of the Department of Art History & Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis, Klein has written extensively on Matisse, including the monographs “Matisse Portraits” (2001) and “Matisse and Decoration” (2018).

Klein also contributed the lead essay to our accompanying publication, “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony.” Additional catalogues are available for purchase on our website in limited quantities, and may also be pre-ordered through Rizzoli International Publications.

Produced and edited by
Cinematography by Sam Sielen

05/22/2026

Due to the long lines today, we won’t be able to accommodate visitors who queue for our Matisse show after 4:30pm. The exhibition closes today at 5:30pm.

On loan from The Cleveland Museum of Art, “Interior with an Etruscan Vase” is on view in “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmon...
05/21/2026

On loan from The Cleveland Museum of Art, “Interior with an Etruscan Vase” is on view in “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony” through May 22 in New York.

Painted in 1940, approximately six months after the outbreak of World War II, “Interior with an Etruscan Vase” offers a glimpse into Matisse’s studio and practice during this turbulent moment. Living and working in Nice at the Hôtel Régina, Matisse carefully composed this richly appointed interior, transforming his surroundings into a sanctuary of beauty and contemplation. Exuberant, overgrown plants blossom into an indoor garden, their leafy forms framing the gentle curves of the seated model and finding a visual echo in the vegetal motifs of the Etruscan vase itself.

Though blackout curtains—mandatory in wartime France—are drawn across the windows, radiant color continues to animate the scene, from the vivid reds of the hanging textile at left to the scattered citrus fruits atop the black table and the brightly patterned garments worn by the model.

Seated comfortably at the table, the model appears serenely removed from the turmoil unfolding beyond the studio walls. As in many works Matisse painted during World War II, he constructs an image of calm, beauty, and refuge amid the tragedies engulfing France and Europe.

Yet this painting would become directly entangled in the conflict. Confiscated in 1940 by the N***s from Matisse’s dealer Paul Rosenberg under the direction of Hermann Göring, the work was later recovered by Allied forces—the “Monuments Men”—in 1946 and ultimately restituted to Rosenberg.

Interior with an Etruscan Vase, 1940
Oil on canvas
29 x 42 1/2 inches (73.7 x 108 cm)
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Hanna Fund (1952.153)

Only a few more days to catch “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony” at the gallery in New York!Featuring over fifty painting...
05/20/2026

Only a few more days to catch “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony” at the gallery in New York!

Featuring over fifty paintings, works on paper, and sculpture by Henri Matisse on loan from museums, foundations, and private collections, the exhibition traces Matisse’s investigation of form in two and three dimensions. Although Acquavella has dealt in exceptional works by Matisse for over sixty years, this marks the gallery’s first exhibition devoted to the French artist since 1973.

Photo by

When Matisse left Paris for Nice in the South of France in 1917, he began working with the 19-year-old Parisian model An...
05/19/2026

When Matisse left Paris for Nice in the South of France in 1917, he began working with the 19-year-old Parisian model Antoinette Arnoud, who would become his primary model for the next two and a half years. Moving away from his somber palette and angular aesthetic of the war years, in Nice Matisse adopted brighter colors, a softer touch, and a sense of decorative richness in his paintings. In the interiors of Matisse’s hotel rooms in Nice, the stylish Antoinette elegantly posed for Matisse wearing beautiful outfits and elaborate hats, several of which the artist fashioned for his model.

Matisse’s 1919 portrait of Antoinette, “Woman with a Flowered Hat,” is on view in our exhibition “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony” through this Friday, May 22nd.

“Woman with a Flowered Hat,” 1919
Oil on canvas, 23 1/8 x 19 1/2 inches (58.7 x 49.5 cm)
Private Collection
© 2026 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

When Matisse left Paris for Nice in the South of France in 1917, he began working with the 19-year-old Parisian model An...
05/19/2026

When Matisse left Paris for Nice in the South of France in 1917, he began working with the 19-year-old Parisian model Antoinette Arnoud, who would become his primary model for the next two and a half years. Moving away from the somber palette and angular aesthetic of his work during the war years, in Nice Matisse adopted brighter colors, a softer touch, and a sense of decorative richness in his paintings. In the interiors of Matisse’s hotel rooms in Nice, the stylish Antoinette elegantly posed for Matisse wearing beautiful outfits and elaborate hats, several of which the artist fashioned for his model.

Matisse’s 1919 portrait of Antoinette, “Woman with a Flowered Hat,” is on view in our exhibition “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony” through this Friday, May 22nd.

“Woman with a Flowered Hat,” 1919
Oil on canvas, 23 1/8 x 19 1/2 inches (58.7 x 49.5 cm)
Private Collection
© 2026 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

05/18/2026

Listen to art historian Elizabeth Cowling discuss Matisse’s work with the model Henriette Darricarrère in the 1920s. A dancer, actress, and muse for Matisse, Henriette inspired a new approach to the n**e in his work in both painting and sculpture.

Cowling, who has written extensively on Matisse, contributed an essay to our publication “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony,” which accompanies our exhibition. The book is available for purchase on our website or in person at the gallery.

“Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony” is on view through this Friday, May 22nd!

Thank you, Alfred MacAdam for your review in the of our Matisse exhibition!Describing the show as a “historical tour de...
05/16/2026

Thank you, Alfred MacAdam for your review in the of our Matisse exhibition!

Describing the show as a “historical tour de force,” MacAdam discusses several of the works in the exhibition in his review.

“On the second floor, the portrait Mademoiselle Yvonne Landsberg (1914) is another masterful act of reimagination: here Matisse utterly transforms portraiture. Ms. Landsberg, demurely posed with her hands crossed over her lap, is either standing or perched precariously on a tall chair. Her face is reduced to a few lines, and all around her swirl whirling lines of force, as if she emanated some strange electricity… Matisse takes a cliché and turns it into something new and wonderful.
..

It is in his bronzes that Matisse most dramatically shows his abilities as a genuinely original innovator, not just a reinventor of traditional compositions. The five “Jeannette” bronzes created between 1910 and 1913, small in scale—the largest is just 24 by 10 by 11 inches—demonstrate Matisse’s evolving freedom from tradition more directly than what we find in his paintings. Jeannette I (1910) is quite representational in a conventional sense, but by the time we get to Jeannette V (1913), the subject’s face has been thoroughly abstracted, transformed into a chunky mask. The “Backs” series shows us this trajectory as well. In these four iconic and increasingly abstracted relief sculptures Matisse challenges Michelangelo’s Young Slave, reconfiguring the idea of the figure embedded in the medium—marble for Michelangelo, bronze for Matisse.

The Acquavella Matisse show is a rare opportunity to catch up on a master. Best absorbed chronologically, the exhibit is a historical tour de force.”

For the full review, please see the link in our bio!

This is the last Saturday to catch “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony”! The gallery is open today, May 16th, until 6pm.Pho...
05/16/2026

This is the last Saturday to catch “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony”! The gallery is open today, May 16th, until 6pm.

Photo by

Thank you, Nate Freeman for highlighting our Matisse exhibition in ’s guide of art to see in Manhattan right now!He writ...
05/15/2026

Thank you, Nate Freeman for highlighting our Matisse exhibition in ’s guide of art to see in Manhattan right now!

He writes:

“The attendees at the British Museum cocktail party, surrounded by masterworks of 20th-century art, couldn’t help but gush about one single gallery show on view in New York City. That would be “Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony” at Acquavella Galleries on the Upper East Side. The multigenerational art-dealing family has sold many Matisses throughout the decades, and borrowed many of them back for an exhibition that’s basically unheard of these days at a commercial gallery. There are 50 works. One hundred people can be inside at one time. Nothing is for sale.

Walking up 79th Street on Thursday morning, I saw a line down the stairs that extended most of the way to the Park. I don’t know how to convey how strange that is-for an exhibition of an Impressionist painter at a townhouse gallery off Madison to have a Banksy-esque line of influencer-status length.

Inside, in the first gallery, is Odalisque couché aux magnolias. It’s a stunner that was last seen in public when it sold for $80.75 million at Christie’s, consigned by the estate of Peggy and David Rockefeller.”

Images:

Photo of “Odalisque couché aux magnolias” by Visko Hatfield, shot for Christie’s from the sale of the collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller.

Install shots featuring “Odalisque couché aux magnolias”.
© 2026 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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18 East 79th Street
Palm Beach, FL
10075

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Monday 10am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm

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