Meditating with Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

At 83, Henri Matisse is reaching the final stage of his life. This time, he will no longer leave Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), this city whose Mediterranean gentleness has always delighted him, the artist from the North. Fifteen years earlier, he bought a large apartment there, in the old Regina Hotel built to accommodate Queen Victoria, which also served as his studio.

In the spring of 1952, he went back to work. First, cover large white sheets with a flat, deep ultramarine blue gouache. Then, using a pair of scissors, quickly cut out round, ample shapes full of life. Finally, on canvases covered with light mounted paper, allow a new composition to emerge.

A job lasting a few hours or several weeks. It is the image of a woman’s body that then appears. Is it the memory of Caroline Joblaud, his first love, which resurfaces in the old man’s memory? The young saleswoman, whose life he shared for a few years in Paris, had also served as a model for him.

The blue shapes outline the silhouette of a free, living woman. The upper body, in the line of flight, is pressed against the upper corner of the painting. The powerful legs intertwine with determination. Feet and hands are reduced to almost nothing, just like the head, a sign of time passing.

Those somewhat bohemian years of his youth are so far away. But the vibrant and raw memory of this love, which gave him his first daughter, is still there. Matisse will create four different copies of these blue nudes this spring. Naked as at the origin of the world. Blue like the sea which never ends.