Bonnard-Matisse, a friendship

In the early 1960s, the art dealers and publishers Marguerite and Aimé Maeght chose a pine-forested hill overlooking Saint-Paul de Vence in the south of France to build a home for their collection. The Fondation Maeght opened in July 1964, giving the public the opportunity to see works by artists including Braque, Chagall, Giacometti and Miró. To mark its 60th anniversary, the Fondation Maeght has opened an extension containing a suite of new galleries and is mounting a major exhibition, ‘Bonnard-Matisse, a friendship’ (until 6 October). The relationship of the Maeghts with the two artists, as well as that between Bonnard and Matisse, is explored through loans and works from the collection. The exhibition offers plenty of opportunities to compare the artists’ treatment of similar subjects: the exuberant froth of Bonnard’s Almond Tree in Flower (1946) versus Matisse’s starkly graphic The Bush (1951), for instance, and their approaches to self-portraiture, the female nude and graphic design.

Find out more from the Fondation Maeght’s website.

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Young woman with vase of flowers (c. 1920), Henri Matisse. Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris. Photo: Benoît Touchard; RMN Grand Palais (Musée de L’Orangerie); © Succession H. Matisse

Almond Tree in Flower (1946) Pierre Bonnard. Centre Pompidou – Musée Nationale d’Art Moderne, Paris. Photo: © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-Grand Palais

Dance movement (1945), Henri Matisse. Private collection. Photo: Jean-Louis Losi; courtesy Dina Vierny, Paris; © Succession H. Matisse