The MugFemmes et singes
Femmes et singes
The Mug featuring Henri Matisse’s Femmes et singes (Women and Monkeys)
The MugFemmes et singes
Femmes et singes
The Mug featuring Henri Matisse’s Femmes et singes (Women and Monkeys)
Design
Femmes et singes (Women and Monkeys) is Matisse's vivid memory of the Pacific Isles. The artwork, represented in its entirety, curves in a graceful ribbon around our iconic mug.
- Pairs with La Sirène & Black Mountain
- Available as a single offering
Our pottery is made by humans in Asheville, North Carolina and reduction fired in large gas kilns. Any differences in glaze applications and surfaces are there to embrace.
Details
- Dimensions: 4.25" x 3.1"
- Weight: 16 oz
- Holds: 12 oz to the brim, 10 oz comfortably
- Stoneware
- Decals produced in France
- Formed and fired in North Carolina
Care Instructions:
East Fork pottery is built for daily use—it's food-safe, non-toxic and made to last. The Matisse Collection merges art with function—use it as everyday dinnerware or display it as decorative wall hangings.
To prolong the life of your Matisse Collection pieces, we recommend hand-washing and avoiding the microwave and oven.
With constant use, plates and bowls might accumulate mild cutlery marks. These can be buffed off with warm water and scouring powder such as Bar Keeper’s Friend.
Femmes et singes, 1952
© 2025 Succession H. Matisse / Artist Rights Society (ARS) New York
About the Artwork
In the summer of 1952, Femmes et singes (Women and Monkeys) hung above the door to the dining room in Matisse’s apartment in the Hôtel Règina, Nice-Cimiez. Drawing on his memory of travels to Tahiti in 1930, the lush repose of the figures appear like a dream transferred to paper.
About The Collection
When I founded East Fork 15 years ago it was a deliberate choice to leave Matisse out of the name. The legacy of my great-grandfather had followed me around for 20 years and I wanted out. I had a feeling that if I tucked myself away in the woods, something was going to emerge and it would free me.
As East Fork took shape and form, a peculiar thing began to happen: no one had any idea that below the colorful pots there was any connection at all to the stern and famous Frenchman on my father’s side of the family.
And so many years later, I slowly welcomed him back in. First with a vibrant red glaze that nodded to The Red Studio, and culminating now, with the collection before you. Through careful and meticulous collaboration with my brother at Les Héritiers Matisse, the company protecting the integrity of Matisse’s work, we worked to ensure our representations of Matisse’s art were in congruence with the originals, that the blue in the cut-outs was as close to the original gouache as could be, and every splatter of ink in the aquatints was captured. To accompany it, we developed La Sirène, a new blue that’s our own nod to the iconic color we worked so hard to capture in the artwork.
This year much of his work enters the U.S. public domain, and this collection in part came to be as a way of marking that moment, and presenting it on our forms in as true and pure and unadulterated a way as possible.
Celebrate Henri Matisse’s bold, joyful spirit with a pottery collection inspired by his love of color, shape and movement.
