Henri MATISSE (Cateau-Cambrésis 1869 - Nice 1954) The... Lot 1

Henri MATISSE (Cateau-Cambrésis 1869 - Nice 1954) The blue villa in Nice, 1918 Oil on canvas 54 x 65,4 cm A certificate from Mr Georges Matisse will be given to the buyer. This work is registered in the artist's archives. It was painted in Nice in 1918. Provenance : Private collection 1918, the revelation of light ... At the peak of his art, Henri Matisse arrived in Nice in 1917 and the Mediterranean light acted on him as an artistic revelation. "When I understood that every morning I would see this light again, I could not believe my happiness. I decided not to leave Nice, and I stayed there practically all my life. Matisse had already initiated this attention to light in Saint Tropez in 1904 with Paul Signac, then in Collioure in 1905 with André Derain and in Morocco. But it is in Nice that he will again upset the rules of painting, by reinventing a way of painting by light and no longer by the juxtaposition of colors to create forms. Art critic Clement Greenberg writes, "He began to paint with a new subtlety, and as he increased and deepened his mastery of traditional painting methods, the tradition was illuminated in a new light by this subtlety. He, the great champion of pure color from which form is born, showed what could still be achieved by modeling light and shadow and how this modeling could promote the desired tension in modern composition. ... and landscape This period also marks for Matisse the revival of more classical themes such as the figure and the landscape. The painter explored the surroundings of Nice in search of inspiration. At first Henri Matisse stayed at the Hotel Beau Rivage on the Promenade des Anglais, then rented an apartment next door which he converted into a studio, where he painted his first Nice interiors and his windows open onto the sea. In May 1918, the Germans requisitioned his hotel and he moved with his son Pierre to the Villa des Alliés on a hill above Nice, and discovered the Villa Bleue. This villa, typical of the region with its original architecture, nestled in an idyllic setting, caught the artist's eye and he set out to recreate its beauty. He described his creative process in a letter to Charles Camoin on May 23, 1918: "I have been working all this time in the sun from 10 a.m. to noon and I was exhausted for the day. I am going to change my hours - tomorrow I will start at 6:30 or 7. I think I'll have a good hour, maybe two, of work. The olive trees are so beautiful at this time of day - the midday is superb but frightening. I think Cézanne has rendered it well in his reports, fortunately not in its brilliance which is unbearable. Earlier I took a nap under an olive tree and what I saw was endearingly sweet. It seems that it is a paradise that one does not have the right to analyze, and yet one is a painter, N. D. Ah! it is a beautiful country Nice! What a tender and mellow light despite its brightness. I don't know why I often compare it to the one in Touraine (...). That of Touraine is a little more golden, this one is silver. Even the objects it touches are very colorful like the greens, for example." This landscape of the Villa Bleue, among the most daring paintings of the same series, challenges us with its avant-garde composition. Henri Matisse does not simply depict a paradisiacal landscape but seeks to arouse an emotion, reversing the classical codes of the conception of space. All the attention is focused on the trees to better suggest the subject represented, the villa. The modernity of the composition is accentuated by the black of the trunk considered as a color by Henri Matisse which contrasts with the celestial blue of the sky, and provides a strong spiritual dimension. Through his search for expressiveness through light, color and the arrangement of elements, Matisse asserts his desire to constantly renew the pictorial language like his contemporary Pablo Picasso, who a few years later would be inspired by a very similar landscape, the Villa Chêne Roc in Juan-les-Pins, where he lived from 1926 to 1927 with his first wife Olga, and of which he produced several paintings in 1931. Painting in series or always closer to the motif Following in the footsteps of the precursors of modern art, Henri Matisse perpetuated this new way of painting which consisted of going directly to the motif with his easel and his tubes of paint. This practice brings the artist closer to nature, he is in direct contact with life and colors. But also with the light that he tries to capture at different times of the day. It is difficult not to paint.