Matisse at Villa Le Rêve / Marie-France Boyer with photographs by Hélène Adant ; [translated from the French by Anna Bennett].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boyer, Marie-France, 1942-

Contributor:

Adant, Hélène, 1903-1985.

Matisse, Henri, 1869-1954.

Standardized Title:

Matisse à La Villa Le Rêve. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Matisse, Henri, 1869-1954--Homes and haunts--France--Vence.

Matisse, Henri.

Matisse, Henri, 1869-1954--Criticism and interpretation.

Matisse, Henri, 1869-1954.

Criticism and interpretation.

France--Vence.

Physical Description:

120 pages : illustrations (some color), facsimiles, portraits ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Thames & Hudson, 2004.

Summary:

From 1943 to 1948, Henri Matisse lived at Villa Le Reve, near Vence in the South of France, seeking respite from the war and his failing health. The art of this period is astonishingly bold: Matisse's famous Vence interiors, with their saturated colors, were painted here, and he also made his most celebrated series of paper cutouts, Jazz. Together with sketches, handwritten notes and a selection of his work from the time, Helene Adant's photographs afford us an intimate glimpse into Matisse's life at Villa Le Reve. For an instant we see what he saw: the strong Provencal light filtered by trees and plants; models coming to pose and take tea with him; work in progress arranged on the walls of the studio; and a unique array of objects that are familiar to us from his work - sea shells, a coffee pot, a pedestal table, Fez pottery, brightly patterned fabrics. And the photographs knowingly capture Matisse's particular fondness for chairs, which appear as characters in their own right.

Matisse's love of nature is evident here as nowhere else at the end of his life, in the wild profusion of wildflowers arranged in a crowd of vases on a single table, and in the long, spiky leaves of trees and plants, whose patterns and shapes are transformed in his bold paper cutouts. With its vivid scenes from the life of one of the twentieth century's most enduring artistic geniuses, this book will fascinate and charm all who love Matisse's work.

Contents:

Villa le reve 14

Portrait of an armchair 36

The models' ballet 54

An array of objects 81

'Nature accompanies me, exalts me...' 100.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (page 120).

ISBN:

0500511756

OCLC:

56640840