SFMOMA Recreates 1905 Salon d'Automne Around Matisse's 'Femme au chapeau'

SFMOMA has mounted 'Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal,' an exhibition that recreates the 1905 Salon d'Automne gallery where Henri Matisse's portrait of his wife Amélie first shocked Paris. The painting, purchased by Leo Stein at the Salon, later passed to Michael and Sarah Stein, then to Elise S. Haas, who bequeathed it to SFMOMA in 1991. Under the bequest terms, the work never travels, making SFMOMA the exclusive venue. Co-curators Janet Bishop and Maria Castro reunited the largest number of objects from the original 1905 gallery, with loans from major U.S. and European museums and private collections. The exhibition includes works by all ten artists from that room, including André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck, whose bold colors earned the Fauvist label. Animated projections of the Grand Palais and the Steins' Left Bank apartment contextualize the period. The final section traces the painting's influence on later artists, including other 'women wearing hats' paintings. The show runs through an unspecified date.