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The Cowboy

Artist Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954)
Title The Cowboy (Le Cow-boy)
Plate Number Plate XIV, pages 98 and 99
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 65.23.14

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About this Work

This print depicts a Wild West circus act. The cowboy on the left leans back atop his rearing horse to lasso the female figure on the right. He and his horse have become a single unit fused into one shape.

The image of the cowboy roping a female was Henri Matisse's way of expressing the relationship of artist to model. Just as the cowboy attempts to capture the woman with his rope, the artist tries to capture the essence of a model with pencil or paintbrush.

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 XIV, pages 98 and 99
Series Title Jazz

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Cite this Page
"The Cowboy | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=65.23.14