Aelous, Cave of the Winds

Aelous, Cave of the Winds — Henri Matisse. 1935.

Medium: softground etching. Dimensions: Platemark: 29.5 x 23 cm (11 5/8 x 9 1/16 in.); Sheet: 41.5 x 31.7 cm (16 5/16 x 12 1/2 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

When asked to illustrate a new edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, Henri Matisse chose to depict six episodes from The Odyssey, the ancient Greek epic by Homer that inspired Joyce. Here, we see Ulysses’s ship driven by the winds from the god Aeolus. This print belongs to a portfolio published alongside the book by the Limited Edition Club. Its founder and editor, George Macy, commissioned the illustrations soon after a 1933 ruling lifting the US ban on Joyce’s novel, establishing that it was not obscene in a legal sense and had literary merit. Although Matisse’s decision was unpopular with Macy’s subscribers, his images made the publication one of the most sought-after illustrated books of the 1900s.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.