The Dance II

In Nice, France, Matisse executed the mural on canvas provided by Barnes, as opposed to working on site.

For Matisse, the project proved to be beset with difficulties, and would end up taking him two years, leaving him physically and emotionally drained.

In a 1933 letter to his son, Matisse wrote about the installation at the Barnes Foundation: "It has a splendour that one can't imagine unless one sees it -- because both the whole ceiling and its arched vaults come alive through radiation and the main effect continues right down to the floor...I am profoundly tired but very pleased.

[2][4] For Matisse, the work highlighted aspects such as simplicity, flattening, the emphasis on colour and the use of paper cut-outs which would all go on to play an important role in his later artistic development.

[5] During a 1993 hearing in the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Orphan's Court art conservator Paul R. Himmelstein argued that The Dance suffered significant damages during a controversial world tour of highlights from the Barnes Foundation's collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings.