Nice & Matisse

 

Musee Matisse

Our next artistic stop was to go to Nice & the Musée Matisse. Henri Matisse was another artist drawn to the peculiar characteristics of the light along the Côte d’Azur. This museum is high on the hill of the Cimiez district of Nice.

After our Picasso experience, our enthusiasm for modern art was revitalised. We did think we would go on the Sunday as there should be less traffic in Nice. However, we then discovered that was the day for the Festin des Courgoudons, festival of sculpted gourds. We decided that may draw in the crowds & went on the Monday, the usual half day closing day in France.

 

Drinks in the park

Travelling through Nice we were very grateful to the Satnav we’d taken with us to France. One way streets are not marked on our maps. Underground tunnels have appeared. However the Satnav got us there & back despite all.

Roman remains at Cimiez

Cimiez is high over Nice. The Musée Matisse is set in a park along with the Musée Archéologique & its Roman ruins. We sat and enjoyed a drink in the park while we waited for the museum to open after lunch.

While I waited for the Fox to sort out the tickets for entry (on a lower, inaccessible floor for me), I looked at a set of 6 busts, all of the same woman. The one numbered one was a fairly orthodox bust of a lovely looking lady. Then, as the versions went on, Matisse played with the face, stretching it this way & that whilst keeping the essence of the same woman. It gave you an insight in to the way Matisse worked.

The museum gave you some impression of the life of Matisse and the influences on him. One thing that struck me was how wealthy he must have been. Clearly his art must have sold well even in his lifetime. At one point we were shown a photographic image of Nice, on which were marked the various houses Matisse owned & lived in. Admittedly Matisse started his career as a lawyer before turning to art which may explain how he afforded some of the palatial homes he had, but my impression is that, by the time he had moved to Nice he worked full-time as an artist.

One room in the gallery was devoted to his work on the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, which we visited several years ago & yet still haunts me. It is a true masterpiece.

What really struck me was how different an artist, & man, Matisse was from Picasso even though they were both working at around the same time in the same part of France. On the whole I think I’m more drawn to Matisse. Picasso is too variable in quality for me. Some I find very poor whilst others are brilliant.

Before we left we had a stroll around the park. We soon realised it was as well we hadn’t gone the day before. The Festin des Courgourdons had been held in that very park. As it was it had been difficult finding a parking space near the park. With a festival going on it would have been impossible. Equally impossible would it have been for the Fox to have pushed me, in my wheelchair, up that hill.

 

The bunting that made me realise where the gourd festival took place