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Chapelle du Rosaire "When he was nearly 80, Matisse volunteered to decorate the Dominican nuns’ chapel at Vence, France. His fresh and joyous works for the chapel include black-and-white murals, semiabstract stained-glass windows, a stone altar, a bronze cross, carved doors, and an array of colorful vestments. His work on the chapel was completed in 1951, and Matisse declared it his masterpiece" (Columbia Encyclopedia). FIRST EDITION, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY MATISSE: "en hommage a Madame Vergnory / H. Matisse".
"At Vence, a
Riviera hill town where Matisse had a villa from 1943 to 1948, he
completed in 1951, after three years of planning and execution, his
Chapelle du Rosaire for the local Dominican nuns, one of whom had nursed
him during his nearly fatal illness in 1941. He had begun by agreeing to
design some stained-glass windows, had gone on to do murals, and had
wound up by designing nearly everything inside and outside, including
vestments and liturgical objects. Before the chapel was finished, he was
at work on the huge coloured-paper cutouts—amplifications of what he had
done in the illustrations for Jazz—that made him in many
respects the “youngest” and most revolutionary artist of the early
1950s" (Britannica). The "Matisse Chapel," as it came to be known, was
regarded by Matisse himself as his 'masterpiece'. This
volume documents Matisse’s work for the chapel, which was completed and
consecrated in the same year as the book’s publication. With numerous
black and white
reproductions of Matisse’s architectural and graphic designs for the
chapel.
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