New exhibition explores little-known collaboration between Matisse and daughter Marguerite

Today in Entreneur, we’re going to focus on French painter Ari Matise. Matise was one of the undisputed masters of 20th century art, particularly known for his incredible use of color. And while you might know Matise and his work, you might be less familiar with his daughter, Margarite. Well, a new exhibition on now at Paris’s Modern Art Museum is trying to change just that. It’s called Matise and Margarite through her father’s eyes. And I’m joined now on the set by the co-curator of the show, Charlotte Barrett Mabi. Charlotte, thank you so much for coming on the show. Welcome. Thank you. So, first of all, just to start for those viewers who perhaps aren’t quite so familiar even with Matis the father, why was he such a leading figure in modern art? Well, in France at the beginning of the 20th century, he was the leader of that movement that was called Fism uh the wild beast uh which was uh which made the scandal really uh in Paris for their use of really bright colors. people had never seen things like this before and uh it provoked a real scandal and Matis was the leader of that movement and then he had a long career and kept reinventing himself until the paper cutouts which is also a very well-known face of his uh work indeed and and he painted many subjects throughout his lifetime but one that came back again and again was his daughter Margarit who’s the focus of this new exhibition that you co-curated so tell us a bit more about Margarite Dutri Matis So who was she? So she was Matis eldest daughter. Uh she was born in 1894 when Matis was just 24 years old. So pretty young man uh from relationship that Mattis had with a model Caroline. So she Margaret was born uh when the couple was not married and she was recognized by Matis only two years later and then very early on she would become one of Matis’s uh most faithful model. She’s the one that really stay in his art through the longest period of time and we see her growing up going from a child to a teenage girl to a young woman and until the last portraits are made when she was 50. So Matis actually had three children in all. Why did he focus so much on Margarita as a model? This is a difficult question. He had two sons after Margaret Jean and Pierre and he was a very close family and Matis was a very um present father for all of his three children but it’s true that in his art it’s Margaret that really has this very prominent u presence um Matis mostly painted woman so that’s one possible uh answer and maybe another one is that Margarite was very sick when she was little she went uh she had who had a tracheotomy when she was very little and it was a real trauma for the whole family. I think Matis was almost afraid that he would lose her. Um and maybe that explain also this attachment he had for her. And then if you look at pictures of her, she had this very intense gaze and this very interesting face that for sure he never stopped um exploring and depicting in all different facets. It’s interesting because in a lot of these paintings we’re seeing as you’re speaking, we always see Margarite with this intense gaze, but also this black choker around her neck. Apparently, that was to cover the tracheotomy scar following dtheria. Exactly. Uh so she had this uh very serious serious medical issue when she was just a little girl and then she had this high colors of black rubbs as well. Uh but then as she grew older she would add a little jewel of a pendant. So she made that medical device kind of became also like a fashion accessory when she grew older. And it was only when she was 25 after the medical improvements that were made during the first world war you know with the gassi that she uh was finally operated and liberated from the black ribbon which disappears. And and one of the rare works that’s on view in the show is called Margarite with a Black Cat. I believe we have this one we can bring up. It was completed in 1910. And apparently this was one that Ali Matis never wanted to sell. Here it is. Tell us about that. Yes. Um it’s a painting painting that Matis considered very important and two reasons. First he kept it until the end of his life and then he went to Margarite and then to Margaret’s son. Um, so yeah, it was obviously a painting that was very close to his art heart. Uh, but also a painting he deemed very worthy of representing his art to the world because just a couple years after it was made, Matis send it to all the big international avanguard exhibitions that were happening in London, Berlin, in New York, also Chicago for the Armory Show. But the painting went al so it went all over the western world if you want but it was never for sale because Mattis would keep it and Margarit had influence on her father not just as a muse but also in later years as a manager that was very unusual for that time wasn’t it uh I think a lot of artist children then later in their life they have they often embrace this role of like kind of the it’s a hidden role but they are very essential in supporting their I It was the case for sure for Margaritz. At some point she kind of disappears from his art but she became this very crucial figure in the background and she is uh she was his ambassador in a way. Matis was in Nice in the south of France at this point. She was in Paris where most of the art world was still going on and so she was his ambassador with the dealers, the collectors, the researchers, museum people and she was really the yeah the point of contact for for him and she was representing him really. Just very briefly before you go Charlotte um this is one of many great shows that have been in France over the years, art shows. Why is France still such a hub for these international exhibitions? Well, we have a great collections here. We have had so many great uh artists in the 20th century and up to to today and it’s Paris especially so rich of all these many museum and you know Matis had this his uh studio where he painted many of Margar’s portrait he was just in front of Notraam. So there’s history also here. There’s absolutely history here. Thank you so much for coming to talk to us Charlotte. the co-curator of the show Matise and Margarite Through Her Father’s Eyes. That’s on now at the Modern Art Museum in Paris through August 24th. Thank you so much.

French painter Henri Matisse was one of the undisputed masters of 20th-century art, particularly known for his incredible use of colour. You may know Matisse’s work but you are probably less familiar with his daughter Marguerite. A new exhibition on now at Paris’s Modern Art Museum is trying to change that. It’s called “Matisse and Marguerite: Through Her Father’s Eyes”. The co-curator of the show, Charlotte Barat-Mabille, tells us all about their relationship.
#Matisse #Marguerite #modernart

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