Colby College acquires rare Henri Matisse screenprint

Chloe Swedberg, Portland Press Herald, July 22, 2026

For Colby College, artwork isn’t just meant to be seen.

It is meant to be studied – and not just by visual art students.

The new Henri Matisse screenprint they have recently acquired will serve not only as course material for Colby’s art classes, but also for classes like French and even statistics.

The artwork, “Océanie, le ciel,” is joining two other works by Henri Matisse already in the collection at Colby College Museum of Art, but it is the first of such monumental size and importance. Composed during the last period of Matisse’s decades-long career, the silk-screened linen panel was inspired by the French artist’s trip to Tahiti in 1930 and features marine life forms that he originally planned out by arranging cut paper motifs. The work was conceived in 1946 with the help of textile designer Zika Ascher and printed in 1948.