Collecting Henri Matisse Books
Best Ones For Investment
Why Collect Henri Matisse Books?
Henri Matisse helped revolutionise modern art through his bold use of colour to express emotion breaking the rules of traditional realistic art much to the annoyance of the art critics who called him and other artists who followed his style ‘Fauves’ meaning wild beasts. Mastering flat perspective using colourful bold stencil style printing and hand colouring and used scissors to cut out his bold shapes to create a new type of art. Collecting or finding certain Henri Matisse books can grow your investment a lot more than cash in the bank over 10 years. For example, Henri Matisse’s Jazz yield over a 10-year period was 100%-120% compared to cash in the bank at a similar value only achieved 20%-22% (UK). Matisse original artworks are to be found in many books and the demand is high so they make for a good investment. You must ensure that you are purchasing these books with the correct date and publisher as later editions are less valuable as these will not have original artworks in them. Some of these books may be in your price range some may not but people do find them or are inherited them. We will discuss this further and look at the chances of finding these titles and where to look if you want to seriously invest in Matisse books.
Best Matisse Books To Collect For Investment
- Jazz by Henri Matisse 1947 published by Teriade, Paris. This book celebrates jazz music and has 20 stencilled plates in colour; 15 of those plates are double page. The text is lithographed throughout making the book a work of art on Arches paper. There were only 250 copies produced plus 20 hors commerce copies produced alongside the portfolio edition of 100 copies during this year by this publisher so the demand exceeds the number of copies. A copy of this book sold for a staggering £338,500 in 2015 at Christies. This copy had a later rebinding in 1953 by Ruth Adler, one of the world’s finest book binders who kept the original wrappers intact. The Jazz books were not finely bound at the time but some buyers have them bound at a later date after purchasing the book. If you were lucky to find a copy at a boot sale, even if it was not rebound, you could still expect to sell it for around this price, if not more, as the value the today would be high as this book is in exceedingly high demand. The 100 portfolio copies and the 20 hors commerce copies are much more valuable than the 250 copies. The 100 copies are unbound and has no text but some galleries who have purchased them sell the individual plates framed so the full sheets as a set are becoming even rarer. Some have done this with the book (250 copies) as unfortunately individual prints framed realise extra money than the complete book. See our blog Bookplate Removal for Artworks
- Poesies by Stephane Mallarme 1932 Published by Albert Skira & Cie, Lausanne. This book contains 29 full page original etchings in black by Henri Matisse on cream Japanese vellum. There were 145 copies printed; 95 copies on Velin dArches paper (cream wove), 30 on Japanese Imperial Vellum and 15 hors commerce and 5 special copies which contain a signed drawing by Matisse. Depending on which copy you purchase or find will reflect on the price achieved at auction. For example, one of the 5 special copies sold for €126,000 in 2025 at Christies, Paris. One of the 25 copies sold for €50,400 in 2025, and one of the 95 copies sold for €48,260 in 2025. Much depends upon the condition, whether and whether it has been later bound by a professional renowned book binder. The better the condition, the higher the value.
- Florilège des Amours de Ronsard by Pierre de Ronsard 1948 published by Albert Skira is illustrated by Henri Matisse with original 126 lithographs in sanguine (a red-brown colour) There are between 27-31 full-page lithographs depending on print number. There were 320 copies printed; 20 of these were hors commerce copies. They were printed by Mourlot Freres. A copy of this book came up for auction in 2019 with an estimate of €12,000-18,000 and sold for €27,350.
- Pasiphae Chant De Minos by Henri De Montherlant 1944 published by Martin Fabiani, Paris contains 147 linocuts by Henri Matisse mostly in text and vignettes; twelve are full-page black and white linocuts. A copy sold for €57,150 in 2026 despite its lower estimate of €12,000-18,000. This copy was one of the 200 copies bound by Paul Bonet. Numbers 1-30 are on Ancient Japan with an extra suite of the 12 plates printed on Chine paper. Numbers 31-230 are printed on Velin dArches paper with the watermark of the publisher. There were also 20 additional (hors commerce) special, promotional copies marked I-XX on Velin dArches paper. One of the 20 hors commerce copies sold for a staggering €119,700 which was the publisher’s copy.
- Poèmes de Charles d’Orléans by Charles d’Orleans 1950 published by Teriade, Paris contains 100 lithographs in colour, some are double-page so framers lose some of them as the reverse counts as another one. There were 1200 copies on Arches vellum paper and 30 hors commerce copies on Velin d’Arches with roman numerals instead of numbers. The more copies that are printed the lesser the value. A copy of this title sold for £4,064 in 2025, higher than its £2,000-3,000 estimate. The hors commerce copies would be worth much more. However, a standard copy can still be worth more if Henri Matisse has doodled or sketched in a copy. A copy sold for €11,340 in 2022 despite its €4,000-6,000 estimate.
Why Prices Will Keep Rising
The fact that art galleries purchase these books with a view of splitting them up to take the plates out to frame them means that the number of complete copies that are available is decreasing. On your search for the complete books, you will come across single page leaves from the book and you will understand just how much each plate can sell for at a given time. Let’s take for example, the plates from Florilège des Amours de Ronsard. If the gallery paid the hammer price of €27,350 and the gallery owner professionally frames and sells the 27 plates off individually as artworks for €2,500, the total the gallery would have made is €67,500. This does not include all the other lithographs that they can frame and charge a lower amount. He/she may make €80,000-100,000 from the book after selling off all the framed plates as artworks. So, you can see why many buyers split the books up.
- Poèmes de Charles d’Orléans by Charles D’Orleans 1950 published by Teriade, Paris contains 100 lithographs in colour, some are double-page so framers lose some of them as the reverse counts as another one. There were 1200 copies on Arches vellum paper and 30 hors commerce copies on Velin d’Arches with roman numerals instead of numbers. The more copies that are printed the lesser the value. A copy of this title sold for £4,064 in 2025, higher than its £2,000-3,000 estimate. The hors commerce copies would be worth much more. However, a standard copy can still be worth more if Henri Matisse has doodled or sketched in a copy. A copy sold for €11,340 in 2022 despite its €4,000-6,000 estimate.
- Verve vol. IX, Nos 35 et 36 1958 published by Editions de la revue Verve has 40 original illustrations by Henri Matisse including the wrappers. There are estimated to be around 6500 copies of this book title hence it can be picked up at a lower price than some of the others with a low print run. A copy was estimated at Christies in 2025 at €1,000-1,500 and the hammer price was €5,334.
Where To Find Valuable Matisse Books
The chances of coming across some of the most valuable Henri Matisse books are quite slim. That is not to say it is impossible by any means. You imagine a collector has a copy and passes away. Their family finds it when clearing out the property not knowing any idea of the value. They may put it in a car book sale, give it charity, give it to relative who puts it on Amazon, eBay, Abe Books etc and takes a guess at a price – which results in a superb bargain find for the buyer.
If you have money to invest, I would recommend buying from recommended auction houses buy instead of the larger, main ones look for regional auction houses in your area as the hammer price is usually much lower. If you do want to sell though approach the big auction houses such as Christies or Sotheby’s as the hammer prices is usually much higher even after fees.
These books were published in small numbers making the chance of randomly coming across one quite slim. The amount of collector’s worldwide who are after these fine art books outstrips supply dramatically. However, I have only shown you five of the best titles where original artworks can be found in books. There are numerous others that contain original Henri Matisse illustrations. All these would make for a good investment whether buying the complete book or breaking the book up for individual artworks.