When Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, patron of the arts and active member of the Union Church, died in 1948, her son Nelson was determined to commission famous Post-Impressionist Henri Matisse to create a window for the church in memory of his mother. Matisse at first declined, saying he was bedridden and unable to work. Finally, Matisse relented, devising an ingenious method of working from his bed. He mixed colors and painted them onto sheets of paper which were cut to shape. Then he directed the design composition on the wall opposite his bed. Matisse never visited the church in which his window would be installed. He finished the design just two days before his death on November 3, 1954. On Mother's Day, 1956, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Memorial Window was dedicated.