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The Codomas

Artist Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954)
Title The Codomas (Les Codomas)
Plate Number Plate XI, pages 78 and 79
Series Jazz
Date 1943–1947, published 1947
Medium Color pochoir (stencil) on paper
Dimensions Image: 16 5/8 × 25 5/8 in. (42.2 × 65.1 cm)
Sheet: 16 5/8 × 25 5/8 in. (42.2 × 65.1 cm)
Portfolio: 17 1/2 × 13 3/8 × 2 1/4 in. (44.5 × 34 × 5.7 cm)
Credit Line Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 65.23.11

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About this Work

The Codoma brothers were trapeze artists who dazzled the public with their perilous leaps and spectacular aerial flights. Henri Matisse represented them as two yellow squiggles meeting in midair. A purple clown (on the right) watches to see what will happen. The flying trapeze artists work above a loosely woven net made of rope. Matisse's black squares arranged in wobbly rows suggest the holes of the net seen from above, leaving it up to the viewer to imagine the actual ropes.

Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art has a complete copy of Matisse's Jazz (Eskenazi Museum of Art 65.23.1–.20) in its original slipcase bearing a personal inscription to the artist’s friend Jean Puy, a Post-Impressionist painter.


Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

Publisher Tériade
Printer Edmond Vairel, Paris
Printer Draeger Frères, Paris
Plate Number Plate XI, pages 78 and 79
Series Title Jazz

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Cite this Page
"The Codomas | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=65.23.11