PhiladelphiaIn the fall of 1930, Henri Matisse , age 58, visited his patron Albert Barnes ’s collection, just outside of Philadelphia, for the first time. The great mural “The Dance,” to be installed permanently in the three arches of the main gallery, was commissioned then. Now it provides the impetus for the visually lush, thought-provoking “Matisse in the 1930s,” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the first major exhibition to focus on an often overlooked decade that proved pivotal for the artist. (Born in 1869, Matisse died in 1954, a month short of his 85th birthday.) Jointly organized by the PMA’s Matthew Affron , Cécile Debray of the Musée Picasso, Paris, and Claudine Grammont of the Musée Matisse, Nice, the show assembles about 140 paintings, sculptures and a fabulous group of drawings from public and private European and American collections, plus prints, illustrated books, photographs and films.

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