1905 -1948 · Built color, Nice and decorative space

At Matisse, the interior becomes an architecture of color where table, window, figure and pattern come together in a space that is flattened, bright and habitable.

The interior accompanies all of Matisse's research into the union of color and drawing. From the Fauvist years, a young girl reading, a table or a colored wall was enough to free the tones from their descriptive function. L'Atelier rouge radicalized this logic in 1911: a continuous red covers floor and walls, while furniture and works remain through their contours. After his installation in Nice in 1917, Matisse worked in rooms and hotels where he organized fabrics, plants, screens and windows. After his installation in Nice in 1917, Matisse worked in rooms and hotels where he organized fabrics, plants, screens and windows. The female figure, still life and the Mediterranean landscape coexist in the same decorative surface. Perspective is never simply suppressed: it is folded, folded down and restarted by an oblique table, a mirror or an open bay. The blue and red interiors thus show how a dominant color can build the entire space. In recent years, the studio itself has become the support for cut-out papers, extending this search for a total environment on the walls. The "Interior by Henri Matisse" selection notably compares Small Interior to the round marble table and Red Interior, still life on a blue table. His reading favors the story.

Matisse does not furnish space with color: he makes color the very space that the eye can inhabit.