In 1927, Henri Matisse received first prize at the Pittsburgh International
Exhibition.

As a result of his numerous exhibitions abroad--at the Toison d'Or, Moscow
1908; at the Internationale Ausstellung des Sonderbundes in Cologne; at the
BerlinSécession in 1913; at the Sécession Romana, 1913; at the Exhibition of
Scandinavian Museums, Copenhagen, 1924; at the Kronprinzin Palast, Berlin,
and the Tate Gallery, London, 1926; in 1927 at the Carnegie Institute and in
1929, the Exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels--almost all the
important works of Matisse of that period are owned abroad.

A great number of his youthful pictures had been bought by Gertrude, Leo,
Sarah and Michael Stein; and when Leo left the rue Fleurus to go back to
California they had to be divided up. Following the dictates of her heart, which
had always a softer spot for Pablo than for Matisse, Gertrude had kept for herself
the works of Picasso; whereas the Frenchman's pictures followed Leo to Cali-
fornia. Which meant that after 1929, a number of Matisse's pictures had crossed
the Atlantic.

And many were in Russia, in the possession of Morosoff and Stchoukine,
whose 'nationalized' collections are now on view at Moscow's Museum of Occi-
dental Art.

Henri Matisse was much impressed by his three visits to the United States,
and particularly by the quality of the light, strangely 'crystalline' it seemed to
him, which gave the painter new problems of atmosphere.

But his journey to Oceania impressed him more than any. He had dreamed of
going there ever since he was twenty, and was at last able to do so.

'I have always been enthralled' he said, 'by the sort of light surrounding the
subjects of my contemplation, and I have often wondered in my mind, what
peculiar quality it would have on the other side of the world. I lived there three
months, absorbed in my surroundings, with no other ideas than the newness of all
I saw, annihilated, unconsciously storing up many things.' ¹

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