This fabulous book, one of the most spontaneous and joyous of all Matisse's printed works, is illustrated with over 100 finely lithographed color pages, including 54 original works, done with colored pencils and crayons. The frontispiece portrait of the medieval author is signed and numbered in the plate. Printed entirely on heavy Velin d'Arches by Mourlot. Folio. Loose pages, as issued, in a lithographed glassine-covered folder. Paris: Teriade Editeur, (1950). First edition. A clean near fine copy, lacking the original slipcase. Despite the rather large limitation, copies of this book are increasingly scarce. Number 194 of 1200 copies printed and signed in pencil by Matisse on the justification page."The poems of the fifteenth-century author were written out in the artist's hand and framed by his own borders, in the manner of an illuminated manuscript." -- The Artist & The Book, p. 202. "In no other of Matisse's books does one feel the same sense of the artist's pleasure in his work as he plays here in his subtle games with children's crayons." -- Alfred Barr in Matisse: His Art & His Public, p. 272-273,
With slipcase...portofoliul in very good condition, slipcase damaged but present
