NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s 5 May 2010 Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York will feature Henri Matisse’s spectacular “Bouquet pour le 14 Juillet 1919”, the artist’s emotional celebration of the first Bastille Day following World War I (est. $18/25 million)*. The present work also heralds the fresh and colorful style that would define Matisse’s career from 1919 onward, and signals the artist’s renewed sense of optimism following one of the most troubling periods of his career. The large and ambitious masterpiece (45 1/2 x 35 in, 116 x 89 cm) was presented by the artist to his dealers Bernheim-Jeune shortly after its completion and it remained in Bernheim’s family collection until it was sold at auction in France in the early 1980s. At that time, the picture achieved a record price, and since then, it has been in the same private collection for over a quarter of a century. Prior to e