an enriched collection that illuminates the North

At the mention of his name, we readily imagine landscapes bathed in sun sketched during his stays in Nice, Vence (Alpes-Maritimes) or Tangier (Morocco). He, the painter of color, nevertheless grew up far from the shores of this Mediterranean whose light he loved so much.

Henri Matisse was a man from the North. Born on December 31, 1869 in Cateau-Cambrésis (North) – like his parents and grandparents before him – he spent his youth about fifteen kilometers away, in Bohain-en-Vermandois (Aisne). His hometown, an ancient textile city located in the green Selle valley, has not forgotten the local child. Today it houses one of the largest Matisse collections in the world, in a museum that has just been expanded and renovated.

An enriched collection

“It was Matisse himself who had the idea for this museum,” recalls Sophie Le Flamanc, the deputy director of the establishment. In 1952, reconnecting with his roots, he bequeathed to the city a set of 82 works carefully selected to reflect the evolution of his art.

This collection, considerably enriched since then, is now displayed in a completely redesigned setting. Installed since 1982 in the body of the Palais Fénelon, former home of the archbishops of Cambrai, the museum has expanded by a thousand square meters by occupying the old covered market of the city, whose beautiful red brick facade has been preserved.

A new scenography is also proposed, integrating new works. Both chronological and thematic, it unfolds through the ten rooms retracing the life and work of the man who discovered his vocation late in life. At 20, following an operation, his mother gave him a paint palette. A revelation for the young man who was destined to be a clerk in a law firm in Saint-Quentin.

“Before, I had no taste for anything, I felt great indifference to everything they wanted me to do. From the moment I had this box of colors in my hands, I felt that this was my life,” he confided later.

Souvenirs from Polynesia

From his Parisian beginnings alongside the Fauvist artists to his famous series of collages of Blue nudespassing by the imposing Window in Tahiti I (loaned for the occasion by the Matisse museum in Nice) and Window in Tahiti IIemblematic testimonies of his stay in Polynesia, the exhibition retraces the singular path of an artist who always sought balance between shapes and colors.

Set back from the main route, three small, very educational rooms – visitors can discover the tools the artist used in drawers – are each dedicated to a creative technique: engraving, sculpture and cut-out paper. In the space dedicated to the latter, a device offers the possibility of creating your own compositions, using pre-cut shapes. The drawing room, entirely designed by Matisse, was left as is. “It’s an almost sacred room, a sanctuary of Matisse’s graphic art,” says Sophie Le Flamanc.

An inspiring legacy

At the end of the journey, a monumental work touches the heart. This is an original piece of the ceiling of the Régina hotel in Nice, drawn in 1950 using charcoal mounted on a bamboo pole while Matisse was bedridden. The portraits of his three grandchildren, sketched with a light line, overlook the visitors invited to contemplate them from a long (and comfortable!) inclined sofa. The last two rooms are dedicated to the Chapel of the Rosary of Vence, the final work of the artist who designed the plans and all the decorative elements (stained glass, ceramics, stalls, fonts, objects of worship, ornaments, etc.) . “This chapel is for me the culmination of a lifetime of work and the flowering of an enormous, sincere and difficult effort,” recalls a moving quote. The building was inaugurated on June 25, 1951 in the absence of Matisse, who was then ill. A giant screen allows you to explore the interior and exterior using images taken by drone.

The Henri Matisse collection does not occupy the premises alone. The painter’s legacy inspired other artists and collectors. In 1956, Auguste Herbin, also born in Cambrésis – and celebrated at the Montmartre museum in Paris last spring – entrusted some of his paintings to Le Cateau. They are now exhibited in the new extension of the museum, where they stand alongside works by Giacometti, Chagall, Miro, Bonnard and Picasso, which came from another donation, that of Tériade, publisher, art critic and great friend of Matisse.

To mark the reopening of the museum, a temporary exhibition entitled “Henri Matisse. How I made my books” presents, on the ground floor of the building, the fruit of their collaboration: 14 works – including some from big names in French or world literature such as Mallarmé, Baudelaire, Ronsard or Apollinaire – and illustrated by the hand of the master. One of them is a key work. Composed of gouache and cut papers from 1943, the album Jazz constitutes the first step of this new practice which will mark the last decade of his life, in a constantly renewed creativity.