Matisse in the Studio

Charming exhibition at the Royal Academy bringing together objects owned by Matisse and the paintings he made of them.

Although there were only one or two objects in each room there was a lovely selection of paintings of them and good descriptions of how Matisse acquired and used them. I recognised many of the objects from the pictures and was fascinated to see how like the paintings there were. In particular a lovely green glass vase which I’d always assumed he was painting in a free style which made it look a bit wonky, but no it was a bit wonky!

I loved the Venetian chair shaped like two shells with dolphin arms and it was interesting to see different versions in pictures, some sowing it fairly literally but others simplifying the shape to its curves.

My favourite section was the one looking at the Odalisques which talked about Matisse using his studio like a theatre and creating scenes within it. It was interesting to see different interpretations of the wallpaper, again some literal and some simplified, and lovely to see the Moorish screen which appears in so many of the pictures.

Closes 12 November 2017

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