La gerbe was commissioned by mr and mrs sidney f brody in the early 1950s and turned out to be henri matisses last commissioned artwork it was to be created as a ceramic for the courtyard of the brodys home and was created in fifteen sections which were installed after matisses death for the composition matisse created a full scale paper cut out version of the work and numerous colour samples it is an amazing example of matisses large scale paper cut work which he described as allowing