Picasso and Matisse
29th October 2026 - 10th January 2027
Adam’s Gallery is delighted to present an exhibition featuring two of the twentieth century’s greatest artists: Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and Henri Matisse (1869–1954). The show includes original etchings, lithographs and linocuts by both masters. These are authentic prints, not reproductions, and each work is accompanied by a certificate of authentication.
Pablo Picasso was born in Spain in 1881 and was to become the most famous, versatile, prolific and influential artist of the 20th Century. The son of a painting and drawing master, he was remarkably precocious, mastering academic draughtsmanship when still a child. By the 1920s Picasso had established himself as a world famous painter and his reputation and status continued to grow.
It is our good fortune that Picasso had such a great love of printmaking. By the time he died in 1973 he had produced a substantial body of original etchings, lithographs and linocuts, which rank with the greatest prints of the 20th Century. While the ownership of an original painting is, for the majority of us, out of the question, his original prints made in small editions remain relatively accessible.
Matisse was born in 1869 in Northern France. By 1891 he had abandoned his law degree and started to paint. In Paris, Matisse studied art briefly at the Académie Julian and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He embraced a new range of influences, abandoning the Impressionistic palette and establishing his own style with brilliant colour and fluid line. His subjects were primarily women, interiors, and still lifes.
From the early 1920s until 1939, Matisse divided his time between the South of France and Paris. While recuperating from two major operations in 1941 and 1942, he concentrated on a technique he had devised earlier, ‘papiers découpés’ (paper cutouts), which would prove hugely influential, and was one of the first painters to take an interest in “primitive” art. He died on November 3, 1954, in Nice.
