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This is the seventh in a series of ARTicles featuring newly restored paintings on display at the freshly renovated Marshalltown Arts & Civic Center (MACC). Each month a different artist and painting are featured.

In 1958, Bill and Dorothy Fisher gifted Marshalltown an extraordinary legacy; a stunning mid-century modern community center and a world class art collection highlighting the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

After 55 years, the community center and collection were both in need of restoration. In 2017, the process began with the full support of the Fisher Family and the Fisher Governor Foundation. Committees were formed to write grants, digitize records, reach out to organizations and individuals for funding, and hire technical experts and consultants.

An on-site evaluation of the collection was completed the day before the EF3 tornado devastated the north side of Marshalltown, and the appraisal of the collection was completed in 2018. A total of 44 artworks, (paintings and sculptures) were chosen for restoration.

In July 2020, the Chicago Conservation Center retrieved the identified works. The very next month, the community center, and much of Marshalltown, was decimated by a derecho.

Restoration of the art was completed in 2021, and the Fisher Art Museum opened in September 2022.

Currently on display are approximately half of the paintings from the Fisher Art Collection. The others are resting in climate-controlled storage and will be on view in 2025.

Today’s featured artist is the incomparable Henri Matisse. One of his earlier pieces, now freshly restored, hangs in the Fisher Art Museum and is a genuine must see.

Born in France in 1869, Henri Matisse has long been recognized as one of the great masters of the 20th century. He is often referenced in concert with Pablo Picasso, as one of the founders of modern art. Matisse was a supreme colorist and, as did Picasso, went on developing and refining his vision throughout a long and creatively fruitful life. Neither seems to have tired of experimenting with line, color or medium. Some say Picasso was humbled by Matisse’s ‘quiet greatness.’

Matisse began painting in earnest at age 22 when the art world was dominated by official academies and juried exhibitions. As such, his earliest training focused exclusively on basic techniques and classical academic principles.

As a professional artist, Matisse was first associated with ‘les Fauves,’ (the wild beasts), a group who saw themselves as “creators of objects,” rather than “recorders of objects as they appeared.” As a whole, the Fauvists are credited with liberating color, having no qualms about painting a sky green, nor a mountain red, and it was Matisse who most enthusiastically embraced this aspect of their manifesto. Although he mastered a range of styles and mediums throughout his career, the lessons he learned with les Fauves stayed with him always.

And yet, despite his affiliation with the free-thinking and rather bohemian movement, Matisse was, by nature, a cautious and patient man. Making numerous studies of his artwork before being satisfied with a final product, many of his pieces convey what has been called “calculated abandon.”

Best known for works on canvas, he also achieved great success in printmaking, lithography, etching, woodcutting, book illustration, and costume and stage design.

Late in life, when almost incapable of painting, Matisse created decorative art by cutting colored paper into shapes and pasting them onto a surface. These collages of his final years are among the most joyous works of his entire career. He continued working in this manner and style until his death in 1954 at age 84.

On view at the MACC is an early work by this master. Nature Morte: Portrait de Mme. Matisse dans une glace, (Portrait of Mrs. Matisse in the mirror), is an oil on canvas, painted in 1896, just 5 years after Matisse began painting as a vocation. It is not the palette nor imagery one associates with the mature works of Matisse; but rather, is typical of his early, more formal pieces. And that is what makes it so special.

Varied in tone, with bright whites and dark browns, it is a quiet scene that depicts culinary items atop a mirrored sideboard and Mme. Matisse’s reflection; her head bent as if engaged in a task. Those who knew and viewed this painting prior to the restoration will likely delight at the details now revealed. Feast your eyes on the unexpected at the MACC. Call 641.758.3005 or visit www.maccia.org for more information.

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Nancy Adams is a member of the

Fisher Art Museum Committee.