Matisse Chapel

Morning view

Matisse’s Vence residence

Matisse Chapel

We went to the market in the morning. There are flower vendors everyday except on Monday when there are antique dealers. We took the bus to Vence to see the Matisse Chapel. There is quite a story about its evolution.  One of his models became a nun. They continued a friendship and the sister asked Matisse about helping with the design of a chapel. He got very involved and ultimately designed every element of the chapel.  There is an exhibit that shows all his preliminary sketches and ideas. Matisse always worked thru his ideas by sketching or painting an image multiple times until he was satisfied.  His residence in Vence is now shabby, a sad edifice of past grandeur. According to the cashier at the Museum, three nuns live there. The gardens are not tended. There was a “gray gardens”  feeling. But still one can imagine Matisse there with visits from Picasso and Renoir during the war years in the 1940s, over 80 years ago.