Henri Matisse is known as a decorative artist because he painted shapes with curved outlines and linear arabesques filed with large, flat areas of color. This style culminated with the large cut-outs seen in Ivy in Flower . This work was produced using pieces of cut paper. Ivy in Flower , created during the last year of Matisse's life, is designed for a stained glass window in a mausoleum. Ivy is a traditional symbol for everlasting life.
Light shining through the different colors of stained glass creates a warm glow.
It is what I will call expressive atmosphere. Ivy in Flower is a celebration of color and shape, full of sunshine and the joys of nature. In 1941, when Matisse became too ill to paint, he hired assistants to help him. The assistants painted large sheets of white paper with gouache in the colors that Matisse liked, including red, yellow, and green. Matisse sat in bed, or in his wheelchair, and cut out dancers, acrobats, clowns, birds, animals, sea creatures, flowers, leaves, and other shapes that interested him throughout his life.