Distance: 0, not even yoga
Henri Matisse, Storm in Nice, 1919, oil on canvas
Matisse would spend each winter at the Hotel Mediterranee – from October to May – for the next five years, producing a steady stream of noteworthy paintings and drawings. On 2 January 1919 a freak storm broke over Nice which would generate one of Matisse’s most iconic Nice paintings. In her biography, Matisse The Master, Hilary Spurling writes:
Seas pounded up onto the front, pouring across the promenade and turning the street into a rushing grey river. Winds tore off the hotel shutters, smashed the windows and shattered a big mirror in the entrance hall. ‘It’s so extraordinary that I haven’t enough eyes to take it all in, ‘ Matisse wrote to his wife next day, painting the scene from his window with hands that still shook from elation and shock. The luminous rain-washed atmosphere after a storm always exhilarated him. The main reason he gave afterwards for coming to Nice was the Mediterranean sunlight: clear, silvery and soft in spite of its phenomenal brilliance. He said he couldn’t believe his luck when he first realised he would open his eyes every morning on the same light. ****
**** Courtesy Blog: That's How the Light Gets In
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