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The Nightmare of the White Elephant, Plate IV from the portfolio Jazz
The Nightmare of the White Elephant, Plate IV from the portfolio Jazz

The Nightmare of the White Elephant, Plate IV from the portfolio Jazz

Artist (French, 1869–1954)
Date1947
MediumPochoir on Arches paper
DimensionsSheet: 16 9/16 × 25 1/2 inches (42 × 64.8 cm)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineGift of Bruce Allyn Eissner, Class of 1965, and Judith Pick Eissner
Terms
  • Prints
  • Color stencil print
  • French
Object number80.063.004
Label CopyThis image, like all of the prints in the Jazz series, was produced using pochoir, an early form of screenprint Matisse turned to late in life in response to being physically impaired and confined to a chair. The entire series explores themes of the circus and the rhythms and sounds of jazz music. The Nightmare shows one of the darker scenes: while an elephant dances on a ball, various red, daggerlike forms impale it. The image reads as an intense, discordant jazz anthem—black shapes moving in, out, and around the scene like trombones blowing, red shapes like staccato bursts of the trumpet, a blue star like a saxophone blast— visual sounds coming together to form the wail of the elephant during its nightmare. ("Imprint/ In Print," curated by Nancy E. Green with assistance from Christian Waibel '17 and presented at the Johnson Museum August 8 - December 20, 2015)
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