Chapelle Matisse

In Vence, Zuid Frankrijk, werd ik
weer diep geraakt door
de adembenemende schoonheid van
Chapelle du Rosaire van Matisse (1951).
De ramen, muurschilderingen, het meubilair,
de vloeren, de fluister-biechtstoeldeur,
altaar en toebehoren,
de sprankelende kazuifels,
alles van Matisse,
ieder detail doorleefd.
Vanzelfsprekend evenwichtig,
Alomvattend.

Henri Matisse wrote
about his “Gesammtkunstwerk”,
la Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, France:
…
“This is how simple colours can effect
the innermost feelings,
their impact being all the more forceful
through their simplicity.
Blue, for instance, accompanied by the radiation
of its complementary hues,
affects feeling like
a vigorous stroke of a gong.
The same is true of yellow and red,
and the artist should be able
to play on them as required. In the chapel,
my main goal was to find a balance
between a light surface
and colour with a solid wall
of black-on-white line drawing.
For me, this chapel is the achievement
of an entire life’s work,
the outcome of tremendous,
difficult, sincere effort.
This is not work I chose,
but rather work for which
I was chosen by fate at the end of my road,
one that I pursue through my research.
The chapel provided me with
an opportunity to set it down
by combining its various features.”

…
“One reaches the creative state
through conscious work”

“Preparing the work itself means
first nourishing one’s feeling
through studies representing
a certain analogy with the work;
it is then that the choise of elements
can be made.
It is these studies that enable
the painter to give free rein
to his subconscious …
After a certain point,
it is no longer up to me, it is a revelation:
all I do is give myself up.”
…
Henri Matisse From: Chapelle du Rosaire
of the Dominican Nuns of Vence,
by Henri Matisse, Vence 1996

Henri Matisse
Chapelle du Rosaire/Chapelle Matisse
fotografie: Michel Boutet