Flowers and China (The Capuchin Cress)

Henri Matisse

Oil on canvas

Städel Museum

Painted in 1913 by Henri Matisse, this oil on canvas still life depicts a nasturtium (Capuchin cress) growing against a luminous blue background, accompanied by a green ceramic plate that reads almost as an abstract form — a moon suspended in flat, saturated color. Rather than rendering depth through conventional perspective, Matisse dissolves three-dimensional space into pure chromatic relationships, structuring the picture surface through purely decorative elements. The work belongs to a pivotal period in Matisse's career when his Fauvist-rooted language was being refined into a more radically decorative and color-driven idiom. Its acquisition by the Städtische Galerie Frankfurt in 1917 — and its dramatic confiscation as 'degenerate art' in 1937 and eventual reacquisition in 1962 — adds an additional layer of historical significance to this quietly extraordinary canvas.