Matisse Cut-Outs and Colour on a Plain Wall

Late Matisse is shapes cut from sheets of painted paper, arranged flat. There is no shading, no depth and no perspective. Everything happens on the surface, which is why these prints are so easy to live with and so easy to ruin with the wrong frame.

Flat shapes need a flat wall

Because the composition is flat, anything textured behind it competes. Wallpaper with a pattern, exposed brick, a heavily textured plaster, all of it pulls the eye away from the shapes.

A smooth wall in white, off-white or a pale neutral is the right ground. The paper in the print supplies the warmth, and a cool wall makes the cut shapes read cleaner.

Which palettes suit which rooms

Blue and green cut-outs. Cool and calm. Bedrooms, bathrooms and hallways, especially with pale wood.
Orange and pink cut-outs. Warm and loud. Living rooms and kitchens, where the print can be the strongest colour in the room.
Black and white shapes. Graphic. Studies, hallways and walls next to a doorway, where the print is seen at an angle.

One print or a pair

One cut-out at 70 x 100 cm fills a wall on its own and is the arrangement we see work most often. If you want two, use the same format, the same frame and a gap of 5 to 8 cm, and centre the pair on the furniture rather than the wall.

Three is too many for this palette. The shapes start to compete and the wall looks like a set of swatches.

Height and the space around the shapes

Centre the print between 145 and 150 cm from the floor, and leave 20 to 30 cm between the bottom edge and the back of the sofa or top of the sideboard.

Leave at least 40 cm of clear wall on both sides. The shapes need white around them, in the room as well as inside the frame.

Frames that stay out of the way

A thin white, natural oak or pale grey frame. No mount, or a narrow one, and no colour in the frame itself. The print already carries three or four strong colours, and a coloured frame adds one more decision to a composition that was made carefully.

Avoid glass with a strong reflection in a bright room. The shapes are large and flat, so a reflection sits right across them.

Light and fading

Warm reds and oranges fade first. Keep the print off a wall that takes direct sun for hours, or use glass with UV protection if the room leaves you no choice.

Soft, even light from the side keeps the shapes crisp and does not wash out the paper.

What you are buying

Our Matisse posters are printed reproductions on matte paper. The cut edges of the original paper cannot be reproduced in print, and the colour is matched to a scanned reference. What survives is the composition and the balance of the shapes.

More works are in the Matisse collection.