A bright winter light

Intimate portraits, like this one of the artist with his friend M. Vassaux, are at the heart of this new exhibition

The winter light may not inspire you in quite the same way but spending time at the Matisse Museum over the festive holiday is still likely to brighten up your wintry day, and with a new exhibition, there is no better time to visit.

Presenting a collection of photographs that intimately capture the artist’s life, the exhibit is split into two parts.

The first displays 23 prints, taken by celebrated photographers and produced from their original negatives using digital technology. Shots most often depict Matisse in his Paris and Nice studios, sometimes working, or just sitting and sometimes gazing at his paintings or sculptures.

Among the most revealing are several prints by Russian photographer Hélèn Adant who would often visit her cousin Lydia Delectorskaya, Matisse's model and assistant from 1935. Adant's images provide a unique record of the artist at work in the Regina in Nice and in Vence. One captures him standing on a box, a long paintbrush in his mouth. Others capture the arrangement of his props with which he surrounded himself.

A portrait by Michel Georges-Michel has the outline of Matisse against the window in his studio in place Charles Felix, the Promenade des Anglais behind him.

The second part of the exhibition has 28 “holiday snaps”, taken by Matisse in Tahiti in 1930. And the two exhibitions work together to provide a fleeting snapshot of this great artist’s private life.

However, more than anything the black and white photographs remind us that Matisse was a man who celebrated colour; anything else has a touch of grey in comparison.

HM