Jun. 1(Mon), 2020 – Nov. 3(Tue) *Temporary closure on September 1-3, 2020

In a social environment characterized by rapid modernization and the repeated wars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there emerged in literature and art a yearning for “somewhere away from here.” In particular, the artists Claude Monet (1840–1926) and Henri Matisse (1869–1954) both created their own private worlds, or “artificial paradises,” at their residences: the one by designing and building a garden, the other by personally arranging a distinctive indoor space. In this respect they have a deep affinity.

In the late nineteenth century, Monet left the modernizing city of Paris for the rural town of Giverny, his last abode. At his Giverny property, he laid out a garden, including a pond, and in this ideal setting spent day after day producing a series of works depicting water lilies. Similarly, Matisse, having settled down in the South of France, painted and decorated his room in a manner suggestive of a theater stage, freely matching textiles and furniture. The motif of the interior and the light of southern France adorned the painter’s studio as well as his compositions.

Monet’s garden and Matisse’s interior served, at the same time, both as important subjects for their paintings and places and environments in which to live and work. This exhibition investigates how the two artists created their “artificial paradises” and sublimated them into their art.

Claude Monet

Henri Matisse