Matisse Museum

The Matisse Art Museum (Musee Matisse) is in the very heart of Nice, in the garden of Arenes de Cimiez. The museum appeared in a 17th-century Genoese villa in 1963. An archaeological museum then occupied its ground floor.

The museum houses a large collection of paintings by Matisse that are often dedicated to Nice, and some of the artist's personal belongings. Curiously, the museum displays both the finished paintings and the sketches. This is a great opportunity to see how a masterpiece is created.

The Matisse Art Museum contains 68 paintings, 236 drawings, 95 photographs, 57 sculptures, and 14 books by the great artist, who was inspired by Nice.

The museum provides an insight into the biography of Henri Matisse. So it will be interesting both to his fans and to those who want to learn more about his life and work. Matisse himself argued that the museum should not be a tomb of the artist's works but a place to study them. That is why the management of the museum decided to exhibit the paintings not chronologically but to place similar paintings next to each other. So that people could compare the techniques and understand the ideas of the author.

Next to sketches, there are finished paintings, united by one plot, and collages near canvases, sculptures, and their sketches on paper. All this helps to trace the periods of the artist's work from the first painting named "Still Life with Books and Candle," which he created at the age of 21, to his last works depicting women on paper.