Matisse, 1941 – 1954

In the brilliant light of his final years, Matisse invents a new language: that of cut-out forms and pure color. More than 300 paintings, drawings, books and cut-out gouaches trace, between 1941 and 1954, the course of a free and constantly moving artist. The exhibition Matisse. 1941–1954, at the Grand Palais on 24 March 2026 at 9:00 AM, illuminates the last years of Henri Matisse’s career, between 1941 and 1954, through over 300 works — paintings, drawings, cut-out gouaches, illustrated books, textiles and stained glass — drawn from the Centre Pompidou collection and international loans. It reveals the multidisciplinary scope of his practice during this period while bringing together a substantial group of cut-out gouaches. At nearly eighty, Matisse reinvented himself with the cut-out gouache, a medium he elevated into an autonomous visual language, one that is free and capable of reaching the universal through its simplicity. Suitable both for reproduction and for monumental commissions, this technique allowed him to fully express the decorative dimension of his art.

The exhibition shows how painting remained at the heart of his approach, far from being supplanted by the cut-outs: on the contrary, it unfolds with ever greater spatial breadth, intensity and color. Among the key ensembles assembled in the presentation are the final series Interiors of Vence (1947–1948), the book Jazz, the series Themes and Variations as well as the ink brush drawings; the principal elements of the Vence Chapel program; the monumental panels La Gerbe and Acanthes; and, as a climax, gathered together, the major figures in cut-out gouaches: La Tristesse du roi (The Sadness of the King), Zulma, La Danseuse créole (The Creole Dancer) and the Blue Nudes. Conceived as a passage through the painter’s universe, the exhibition recreates the vibrant atmosphere of his studio, in constant metamorphosis. An invitation to discover this flourishing “garden” of Matisse, room by room.