A Model for Matisse
Last night the Carnegie Museum offered an encore screening of Barbara Freed's documentary A Model for Matisse. For the next few months a rarely shown Matisse cut-out collage, "The Thousand and One Nights" is on exhibit in the museum's works on paper gallery.
Freed was inspired to make this documentary about Sr. Jacques-Marie after translating the sister's book about her relationship with Henri Matisse and the construction of the now-famous Chapel at Vence. This book was written by the sister to set the record straight.
Once known as Monique, Sr. Jacque came to know before her life as a Dominican sister Henri Matisse initially by responding to his advertised need for a "young and pretty night nurse." She had never heard of him, though this was in the early 1940s and he was quite famous by then. After she left his employ as a nurse, he invited her to model for him. Years later as a Dominican nun, she and Matisse continued their friendship and eventually undertook the construction of the chapel.
There is more to their story than that, but that is the central story of the documentary. Quite a bit of time is also devoted to Matisse's process for the chapel, which I found fascinating. For instance, the studies for his drawings of St. Dominic, Our Lady, and the Stations of the Cross were quite detailed. It takes a lot of anatomical study to reduce an image to the far simpler line drawings.
One thing that is completely striking about this story is that constant assumption that something had to have happened between the nun and Matisse at some point in their lives. Why is it so impossible for anyone at anytime to believe that nothing happened. During the Chapel construction, reporters hounded Sr. Jacques, asking if she had ever posed nude for Matisse (she hadn't, and he never asked, because she knew she wouldn't, was her answer), and even to this day people debate whether Matisse was really in love with her (she has also said that she thought of him as a grandfather). When Matisse died she had been forbidden to go to his funeral because of the potential scandal. Even Freed, the filmmaker, points out to Sr. Jacques all kinds of things Matisse had written about her and asked her if perhaps this really was her great love, Matisse. She of course denies that it was. Why are people so hung up on this? I know, the answer is self-evident.
Freed was inspired to make this documentary about Sr. Jacques-Marie after translating the sister's book about her relationship with Henri Matisse and the construction of the now-famous Chapel at Vence. This book was written by the sister to set the record straight.
Once known as Monique, Sr. Jacque came to know before her life as a Dominican sister Henri Matisse initially by responding to his advertised need for a "young and pretty night nurse." She had never heard of him, though this was in the early 1940s and he was quite famous by then. After she left his employ as a nurse, he invited her to model for him. Years later as a Dominican nun, she and Matisse continued their friendship and eventually undertook the construction of the chapel.
There is more to their story than that, but that is the central story of the documentary. Quite a bit of time is also devoted to Matisse's process for the chapel, which I found fascinating. For instance, the studies for his drawings of St. Dominic, Our Lady, and the Stations of the Cross were quite detailed. It takes a lot of anatomical study to reduce an image to the far simpler line drawings.
One thing that is completely striking about this story is that constant assumption that something had to have happened between the nun and Matisse at some point in their lives. Why is it so impossible for anyone at anytime to believe that nothing happened. During the Chapel construction, reporters hounded Sr. Jacques, asking if she had ever posed nude for Matisse (she hadn't, and he never asked, because she knew she wouldn't, was her answer), and even to this day people debate whether Matisse was really in love with her (she has also said that she thought of him as a grandfather). When Matisse died she had been forbidden to go to his funeral because of the potential scandal. Even Freed, the filmmaker, points out to Sr. Jacques all kinds of things Matisse had written about her and asked her if perhaps this really was her great love, Matisse. She of course denies that it was. Why are people so hung up on this? I know, the answer is self-evident.
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And as the light comes through the glass, the white tiles with their uneven texture give movement and even change the colors.