Buckley & Mass - LE BONHEUR DE VIVRE: THE EPHEMERAL MATERIALS OF AN ARCADIAN VISION – Matisse Symp.
Channel: Barnes Foundation
Date: 21/11/2016

Le Bonheur de vivre (1905-6) has been rigorously studied to identify the source of the lightening and discoloration of Matisse's cadmium yellow paints. Comparison of this work to his painted studies at the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, and San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art was carried out. The research points to a light-induced degradation.

Barbara Buckley is senior director of conservation and chief conservator of paintings at the Barnes Foundation. Her contributions to Matisse in the Barnes Foundation (2016) include technical notes and an essay, "Le Bonheur de vivre: 'The Work of a Superb Colorist,'" which she wrote with Jennifer Mass.

Jennifer Mass received her PhD in chemistry from Cornell University and did her postdoctoral fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. She has conducted scientific research on museum collections for twenty years. She formed Scientific Analysis of Fine Art, LLC, because of a growing need for the material characterization of cultural heritage.

Inspired by the Foundation’s catalogue Matisse in the Barnes Foundation (http://bit.ly/MatisseBarnes), edited by Yve-Alain Bois and published in December 2015, this symposium brings together leading international scholars to examine Matisse in the context of the history of modernism.