Henri Matisse

Cap d’Antibes

1922

© Succession Henri Matisse/DACS 2023

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Not on display

Artist: Henri Matisse 1869–1954
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 506 × 612 mm
frame: 718 × 820 × 95 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Bequeathed by Mrs A.F. Kessler 1983
Reference: T03568

Display caption

In the 1920s Matisse spent much of the year in Nice, in the South of France, returning to Paris only for the summer months. He continued to paint figure scenes, often semi-clothed 'odalisques' in exotically-patterned interiors. However, he also executed a number of naturalistic landscapes in soft-toned colours, which marked a significant departure from his earlier, more radical work. The presence in this picture of the woman seated on a bench gazing at the view is a reminder of the extent to which the Mediterranean had become a site of tourism by the 1920s.

Gallery label, August 2004

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Catalogue entry

T03568 Cap d'Antibes 1922

Oil on canvas 19 7/8 × 24 1/16 (506 × 612)

Inscribed ‘Henri-Matisse’ b.r.
Bequeathed by Mrs A.F. Kessler 1983

Prov: Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (purchased from the artist); Percy Moore Turner (Independent Gallery), February 1923; William Boyd, Dundee; Reid and Lefevre; Mrs A.F. Kessler 1943
Exh: Henri Matisse, Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, February 1922; Loan Exhibition of Pictures, Norwich Castle Museum, October–November 1927 (73, as ‘Antibes’, lent by William Boyd); The Kessler Collection, Wildenstein Gallery, October–November 1948 (19); Les Fauves und die Zeitgenossen, Kunsthalle, Bern, April–May 1950 (102); XXV Biennale, Venice, June–October 1950 (Fauves 49); The Kessler Bequest, Tate Gallery, February–April 1984 (not numbered, repr. in col.)

A view at Cap d'Antibes on the French Riviera, painted in January 1922. The figure seated on the right is probably the artist's daughter Marguerite, as the black-and-white check coat appears to be the one she is wearing in ‘The Scottish Coat’ 1918 (coll. Dubi Müller, Geneva) and its related version ‘Mlle Matisse in a Scottish Coat’ of the same year, in which the pattern is less clear, more abstracted. However, Matisse sometimes used the same clothes on different models, so one cannot be certain of this (information from Wande de Guébriant and Dominique Fourcade).

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1986