Henri Matisse: The Vence Chapel

From 1942 to 1954, Sister Jacques-Marie, initially Monique Bourgeois, retraces her encounter with Henri Matisse, which led to the creation of the Rosary Chapel in Vence (Provence, France). The last and final project of the artist, it corresponds to the culmination of his work. About the chapel, Henri Matisse declared: «This work required four years of exclusive and assiduous work, and it is the result of my entire active life. Despite all its imperfections, I consider it as my masterpiece.” In her text, Sister Jacques-Marie recounts the friendship and complicity she shared with the painter over the years, from which emerged the masterpiece that is the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence. Reproductions of drawings by Matisse, unpublished archive photographs, accompanied by excerpts from the painter’s correspondence, as well as a preface by Zia Mirabdolbaghi, the director of the Château de Villeneuve, and Dominique Szymusiak, the former curator of the Matisse Museum in Cateau-Cambrésis, complete the text.