Matisse and Cezanne
One of the things I loved most about our visit in the south of France was seeing the work of Matisse and the studio of Cezanne.
During one of our day trips, we ventured to Vence to visit the Rosary Chapel, designed by Matisse. It was a much smaller and more intimate chapel than what I had envisioned in my head, but no less impressive. Much like this author, I found myself a bit speechless.
The chapel’s museum, a stuccoed building with sage green shutters and a colorful garden, holds many of Matisse’s preliminary drawings and studies. They gave me such a greater appreciation of how his mind worked to develop and iterate and perfect this stunning chapel.
Back in Nice, we visited the Musée Matisse, where the girls enjoyed an interactive experience to recreate one of his most prominent works of art on display in the reception area. I particularly enjoyed studying his early drawings of the figures that would later appear in The Dance, and getting a closer look at his brushstrokes in Grand Acrobate. I counted just seven strokes. It’s incredible that a mere seven strokes could convey such movement and grace.
While in Aix-en-Provence, we visited Cezanne’s Atelier, situated on the second floor of a sweet building on top of a hill. From this studio with its massive windows allowing sunlight to flood the room, Cezanne painted landscapes of his beloved Mont Sainte-Victoire. My favorite part of the studio was the door he built in the corner of the room, just 2-feet wide, but 12-feet tall. As our guide explained, when Cezanne was unhappy with one of his larger paintings, he would simply throw them through that hatch. Years later, parts of these canvases are still being discovered in the thick woods behind the studio.
Often, museums are focused on the final works of art, the masterpieces. I thought it was special to see “behind the scenes.” I rather enjoyed seeing the sketches and studies, and being reminded that even the most accomplished artists in the world think their own work is trash every now and again.