In Vence, this Saturday, April 15, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Leclerc Cultural Center
It was one hundred years ago!
At the end of 1917, Henri Matisse, passing through Nice, decided to stay for several months at the Beau Rivage Hotel. The sun having succeeded the rain, the painter was enchanted by the region’s luminosity. Thus began years of research and creation. Various places left their mark on his work, with the flow of the seasons: the Beau Rivage Hotel, 105 Quai des Etats Unis (1918/19), the Villa des Alliรฉs, the Hotel de la Mรฉditerranรฉe, then more definitively, 1 Place Charles Fรฉlix, at Cours Saleya, (1921) which ushered in the “period of the odalisques.” Starting in 1938, on the walls of the Regina apartment, large compositions in gouache-painted cut-outs unfolded as well as those of the Dominican chapel of the Rosary in Vence, inaugurated in 1951.
On the works of the Nice and Vence periods, authors and art historians have conducted numerous studies, and museums worldwide have organized significant exhibitions. However, no author had yet delved into the everyday life of Nice or Vence, the local traditions, the diverse and surprising events that the painter might have been aware of, his encounters and friendships from 1917 to 1954, the year of his passing, in Nice.
In this book, Nice and Vence are not just simple backdrops but true characters. It serves as a kaleidoscope of information allowing the reader to broaden their perspective by becoming acquainted with the environment of a work to better understand it. Stepping out of the painting to better see it.
