Marguerite Matisse - She was the daughter of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and his favorite model.
In the special exhibition "Matisse and Magritte: A Father's Eyes" currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, Marguerite's face appears in more than 100 portraits of Matisse from childhood to adulthood, forming a dialogue across family affection and art.
"This painting will take me somewhere else," Henri Matisse said one winter day as he painted a portrait of his daughter at their home on the Quai Saint-Michel in Paris. Twenty-year-old Marguerite, who had posed for her father regularly since she was 12, agreed to his request, and Matisse began to transform the work. Using pink and black lines, Matisse divided Marguerite's face into geometric shapes. He used a vertical black bar to cover her nose, bisecting the upper half of the canvas, and added a patch of white on her left cheek to suggest a beam of light.
The painting in question is "White and Pink Head" (1914-15), the most radical and daring abstract work in a special exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. The exhibition, "Matisse and Magritte: A Father's Gaze," which opened this spring, focuses on the relationship between the painter Matisse and his daughter, Marguerite Duthuit-Matisse (1894-1982).
"Heads in White and Pink" by Matisse, 1914-1915
Marguerite was Matisse’s first child, born in 1894, the product of a brief romance with the model Caroline Joblaud when he was 24. Matisse recognized Marguerite at the age of three, and she became part of the household he established with his future wife, Émilie, and was close to her two younger brothers.
Matisse with his wife Emilie and daughter Marguerite in his studio in Collioure
The exhibition is curated by Barat-Mabille, restorer Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, and art historian Hélène de Talhouët, the retired former deputy director of the Centre Pompidou who curated several landmark Matisse exhibitions and knew Magritte, who died in 1982.
Matisse, "Marguerite with a Black Cat," 1910
The exhibition brings together paintings, works on paper, sculptures and other works from public and private collections in the United States, Switzerland and Japan, including many drawings rarely seen in public and works being shown in France for the first time.
Matisse is a constant in the art world, an indispensable figure, and the entry of his work into the public domain in 2025 will only further solidify this ubiquity. As curator Charlotte Barratt-Mabill puts it, Matisse is already “ubiquitous. Especially since the paper cut-outs, our visual culture has been so deeply steeped in his aesthetic that today we don’t even recognize Matisse as the originator of it.”
Matisse and Magritte, 1921
Many people think that a large number of portraits would make an exhibition dull. But in reality, Matisse was constantly innovating. Barratt-Mabil says, "His drawings include large-scale works, quick sketches with markers, and small, quick drawings in sketchbooks. There are also works where a single line outlines the entire face. These works are gorgeous, varied, and vibrant."
Matisse spent nearly half his life documenting his daughter, Marguerite, in oil, ink, graphite, charcoal, and even bronze and ceramic. Across nine beautifully arranged rooms, visitors can witness Marguerite's growth. The portraits continue Matisse's artistic evolution. Among them are "Tête blanche et rose" (1914-15), created during his time adjacent to Cubism, and "Fête des fleurs" (1922), created during his time in Nice, filled with shimmering colors and the Mediterranean sun.
In "Portrait of Mademoiselle Matisse," on loan from the Kurashiki Ohara Museum of Art in Japan, Magritte gazes directly at the viewer, her cheeks rosy, her features framed by the rich brown collar of her fur coat, the pink flowers adorning the brim of her hat, and the cream-colored hat. Matisse hung the canvas above his bed in Paris until 1920, when Magritte urged him to sell it to a Japanese collector.
Matisse, Portrait of Mademoiselle Matisse, 1918
Those large eyes and a resolute jaw are among the few common features in the more than one hundred portraits of Magritte that Matisse created over four decades. Wandering through the exhibition halls, you'll be struck by the striking diversity of her portrayals across these many works. This isn't simply due to age, clothing, or setting. She was also a highly versatile model, a model who could be transformed frequently, and an ideal subject for her father's artistic explorations.
Matisse's "Portrait of Magritte"
Matisse's "Portrait of Magritte"
In Matisse's earliest works, dating back to the first decade of the 20th century, one can sense the artist's excitement, a feeling born of the closeness of his model. In the summer of 1906, Matisse moved with his wife and children to the Mediterranean fishing village of Collioure. Here, Matisse created his first series of large-scale paintings featuring Marguerite. At just 12 years old, Marguerite had already become her father's favorite model. In "Portrait of Marguerite" (1906-07), she is a little girl wearing a black ribbon, covering the scar from tracheal surgery at age seven. You might recognize her; that ribbon is the same one that depicts the woman in a blue and white dress in the foreground of Matisse's masterpiece "Tea" (1919). In "Margot," she suddenly blossoms into a fashionable young woman wearing a wide-brimmed blue hat and a green veil. Later, in Portrait of Marguerite (1906-1907), she looks gloomy, like a bitter middle-aged woman, and in Le Paravent mauresque (1921), she is elegant, dressed in white, leaning against a mantelpiece, surrounded by a kaleidoscopic pattern.
Matisse's "Margot"
In Matisse's Tea (1919), the woman on the right can be identified as Marguerite by the ribbon around her neck covering her scar.
Matisse's "Moorish Screen"
Matisse employed a dazzling array of styles and techniques to capture the shifting emotions on his daughter's face. In the Fauvist masterpiece "Interior with a Young Girl (Girl Reading)" (1905-06), Marguerite sits absorbed in a book and the vibrant colors around her. A few months later, Matisse took a very different approach to a similar subject: "Marguerite Reading" (1906) is imbued with a sense of intense intimacy and tranquility, thanks in part to the tight composition of the girl's face, her sharply defined features, and the soft colors and patient brushstrokes. In "Marguerite Sleeping" (1920), Matisse depicts his adult daughter recovering from surgery, her hair draped on a pillow, her head resting on her shoulder, her eyes closed, her lips slightly parted. A tranquility permeates her upturned face. Is she dreaming? She becomes even more distinct against the soft backdrop of floral patterns on wallpaper, blankets, and pajamas.
Matisse, "Marguerite Reading," 1906
Matisse, "Marguerite Sleeping," 1920
At one point, Matisse said to Magritte, “I feel like this painting wants to take me somewhere else. Will you follow me in this new, slightly crazy direction?” Barratt-Mabil said, “This painting is completely different from anything he had done before. The lines are hard and sharp. It’s undeniable that it was only with Magritte that he allowed himself to explore in this way.”
In 1923, Marguerite married the Byzantine scholar Georges Duthuit. From then on, she no longer appeared in her father's paintings. Instead, she became Matisse's agent in Paris, responsible for communicating with collectors and art dealers, organizing exhibitions, and expressing her views on her father's work.
Matisse, Waiting, 1921
Matisse, Fête des fleurs, 1922
Matisse, Portrait of Magritte, 1921
Matisse's deep affection for his daughter is vividly displayed in the paintings in the exhibition. A series of sketches titled "Marguerite Reading" (1906) demonstrates how Matisse used an elegant and sensual line to outline his daughter's temple, brow, nose, and finally her slouching figure. In "Marguerite" (1906-07), he used sloppy ink strokes to outline her back and shoulder blades, while the curves that seem to burst from her hair define her slightly pale face. This painting, created during Matisse's stay in Collioure, features bold strokes.
Matisse, Portrait of Magritte, 1945
In the months before the end of World War II, at the age of 50, Marguerite joined the Resistance. After being denounced, she was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, and nearly deported. In 1945, when the 75-year-old Matisse reunited with his daughter in Vence, he painted her again: her happy face emerged from the blurred charcoal, her large eyes clearly outlined, and her enigmatic smile. Marguerite treasured this drawing until her death.
Barratt-Mabil said, "I admire Matisse and I love his work. But what I love even more is that he was a father. He cared deeply for his children, especially the frail Marguerite. He was a father who listened, encouraged and supported his children, which was not something that was taken for granted in the early 20th century."
