Matisse’s mother was stranded behind enemy lines in ... But imagine: You have children — a daughter in her early 20s and two teenage boys. You are a strict but loving father.

Two prints from the '50s — a Matisse aquatint called “Marie José en robe jaune” and a Picasso lithograph titled “Mother and Children” — are linked formally, Williams noted.

In some ways, it’s hard to recognize the Matisse we know; the tortured artist seems to have been a sweet, doting dad. His Marguerite appears in his works at age 6. As a sickly child, she ...