Henri Matisse arrived on the French Riviera in 1917 and remained captivated by its unique climate and intense Mediterranean light for over three decades. Like his friendly rival Pablo Picasso, Matisse used the Côte d’Azur as a dynamic laboratory for modern art. He transformed his art from early Fauvism into pioneering paper cutouts. Matisse originally travelled to the south of France to recover from bronchitis. He quickly fell in love with Nice, declaring that its clear, soft light made his colors sing.
He spent winters at the Hôtel de la Méditerranée along the Promenade des Anglais. He transformed his hotel rooms into theatrical studios. He painted patterns, fabrics, and shutters filtering the coastal sun. His famous odalisque paintings emerged from this era, combining rich textures with the relaxed, warm energy of the Mediterranean. Later, he settled permanently in the grand Hôtel Régina in the Cimiez hillside district.
In the 1940s, severe illness left Matisse confined to a wheelchair and unable to stand at an easel. Undeterred, he pioneered a radical new medium in his Nice apartment: paper cutouts. He used shears to cut directly into sheets of paper pre-painted with bright gouache. He called this method "drawing with scissors." His assistants pinned these vibrant organic shapes, such as leaves, blue nudes, and marine life, directly onto his studio walls. This technique turned physical limitation into ultimate creative abstraction.
To escape wartime bombing in Nice, Matisse moved up into the hills to Vence in 1943, staying at the Villa Le Rêve. His greatest late-career achievement took place here: the design of the Chapelle du Rosaire. Matisse designed every single detail of the building, including the architecture, stained-glass windows, hand-painted ceramic tile walls, and liturgical vestments. When the Riviera sun shines through the blue, green, and yellow stained glass, it projects dynamic pools of color onto white marble floors, turning the chapel into a living canvas.
Matisse passed away in Nice in 1954 and is buried in the peaceful cemetery of the Cimiez Monastery. His immense local presence remains centered at the Musée Matisse Nice, housed inside a striking 17th-century Genoese villa surrounded by ancient olive groves. This museum holds one of the world's most complete collections of his work, tracking his journey from his very first oil paintings to his monumental final paper cutouts.