Chapel of Saint Joseph, Saint-Tropez
Saint-Tropez was still a small fishing town when Matisse stayed there with his wife and four-year-old son from mid-July through mid-October 1904. There, he painted the plain facade of the seventeenth-century chapel of Saint Joseph against the intense blue Mediterranean sky. The shadowy area in the foreground, however, which appears to represent a low enclosure, is painted with less resolved strokes of paint that continue up the right edge of the canvas and into the foliage at the upper right corner. The painting’s delicate palette and contrasts of light and dark, finished and spontaneously executed non finito passages, reflect Matisse’s aim to merge the immediacy of inspiration he derived from plein-air painting with his vision of an art of "balance, of purity and serenity." The work remained with Matisse’s heirs until 2002.
Artwork Details
- Title: Chapel of Saint Joseph, Saint-Tropez
- Artist: Henri Matisse (French, Le Cateau-Cambrésis 1869–1954 Nice)
- Date: 1904
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 23 1/2 x 28 3/8 in. (59.7 x 72.1 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: The Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection, 2002
- Object Number: 2002.456.13
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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