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La Branche de lierre (Ivy Branch) is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Description
La Branche de lierre (Ivy Branch) 1941 is an oil painting by the French master Henri Matisse. It depicts an unassuming still-life of an ivy plant, placed on top of a table located in the interior of a presumably domestic space. The painting is characteristic of Matisse's triumph of the abstraction of lines and subdued colour values (15).

Historical information
Against the tumultuous backdrop of World War II and the German occupation, Henri Matisse resided in Nice at his apartment in the Hotel Regina. Although he continued to endure health complications, Matisse was able to enjoy a period of relative calmness in Nice. His artistic practice continued to show little trace of the political climate. Matisse's Ivy Branch demonstrates a concern for decorative and subdued colour values without implicating non-aesthetic considerations in the same manner that his still-life and figure compositions remained unaffected by the war years. Created with a tendency towards the abstract configurations of line and colour, a practice that Matisse initiated in the 1930s, this flower still-life is unpretentious yet conceived in an appealing manner (15).

Acquisition
Donated by Samuel and Ayala Zacks.