Artist: Henri Matisse
Date: 1949
Dimensions: 5.145 x 2.520 cm
Materials: Papiers découpés on canvas paper

The International Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums wish to thank John Mc Caffrey and the Galileo Foundation for supporting the restoration of Henri Matisse's Arbre de Vie.

Henri Matisse made this study for the apse of the Rosary Chapel in Vence between 1949 and 1951. It consists of two juxtaposed rectangular panels, made using the papiers découpé technique: sheets of gouache-painted paper (yellow, green, and blue) that were cut into the desired shapes and glued, sometimes overlapping each other, onto a large sheet of thick, smooth white paper. Once the composition was completed, the sketches were mounted on wooden frames. In 1987, the wooden frames were replaced with Rigamonti anodized aluminum elastic frames. The frames are connected to each other and attached to the wall with metal brackets.

State of Preservation

• Photographs before and after the intervention
• Disassembly from the exhibition wall and microaspiration of inconsistent particulate matter
• Cleaning with sponges and gentle rubbers of the different constituent parts of the works
• Reassembly of the modified aluminum frames
• Fixing the tears and adding protection for the edges

L’Arbre de Vie - Final Restoration Report

Restoration Procedures

The two large-format cartoons, Arbre de Vie (inventory numbers 23757 and 23758), are the final full-size sketches made in 1949 for the stained-glass windows of the apse of the Rosary Chapel in the church of Saint Paul de Vence. The artwork, made using the "papiers paint decoupés" technique, measures 5,14 x 2,52 meters and is on permanent exhibition in the Matisse Room.

Individual elements of Matisse's gouache paintings on blue, yellow, and green paper were cut out and applied to a white paper background (CA Grain Canson paper) using protein glue.

Kraft paper was added to the white paper; then, it was mounted on canvas and wooden frames, replaced in the late 1990s by aluminum frames with open corners and retractable springs, considered the optimum mounting.

The installation of the Matisse Room for the permanent exhibition of the cartoons in the apse, nave, and choir dates back to 2007, and, in the following years, the pieces have undergone work to secure the edges, which have been reinforced with Japanese paper as they have cracked and torn, due to the abnormal draughts caused by the opening of the aluminum frames.