A pioneer of modernism and a leader of Fauvism, Matisse recognized the power inherent in color. The artist pays homage to the Museum by donating this work (as the signature on the back shows: “en hommage au musée de Faenza H. Matisse”). The work was made in 1948 in Vallauris at the Ramié factory, the same workshop where Picasso was also experimenting with ceramics at the time. The plate summarizes the elements of the unique and precious formula of Matisse’s art: the creative force of color combined with an immediate and loose sign, derived from the influence of primitivism, made of stylization, minimalism and expressive intensity.