Matisse Museum, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France

The Matisse Museum (Musée Départemental Henri Matisse) is a museum in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France that primarily displays paintings by Henri Matisse. The museum was established by Matisse himself on 8 November 1952; he also defined the way his works should be arranged. At that time the museum was located in the wedding room of the Le Cateau City Hall.

In 1956, after the death of Matisse, the collection of the museum was enlarged by the gift of 65 paintings by Auguste Herbin.

The Museum was moved to the Fénelon Palace in 1982, and its ownership was transferred by the city to the Nord department in 1992; after three years of construction and refurbishment, it reopened on 8 November 2002.

The Museum now has the third largest collection of Matisse works in France.

With seventeen exhibition rooms, and over a surface of about 4,600 square metres, the Museum displays more than 170 Matisse works, as well as 65 paintings by Auguste Herbin, given by the artist, paintings by Geneviève Claisse, relative and student of Herbin, elements of the Tériade collection of artists' books and 30 photographs from the Henri Cartier-Bresson collection.

The Museum also regularly hosts temporary exhibits.

References:

Wikipedia

Museums in France

User Reviews

Nadim S (14 months ago)
Entered the place about an hour before closing time and rushed through the exhibits, the collection and the shop. This place needs a lot more time. I will be back. A beautiful location with lots to see.

Anne Spencer (15 months ago)
Very enjoyable. A lovely surprise to find on Matisse's home town. Went on a Monday, the museum was open, but the rest of the town seemed shut. Really recommend going.

Victoria (15 months ago)
Stopped off en route down from Calais, lovely little town. Excellent find of a museum , very well done in a beautiful building. Staff were very helpful and polite. A good place to visit I would recommend to have Multi - Lingual information for the exhibits and paintings, or some way of accessing this.

pippy Williams (18 months ago)
Helpful staff, happy to speak English. Great facilities..toilet with baby change. Beautiful grounds to walk around and have a picnic ?

Eskil Nielsen (2 years ago)
Super nice modern art museum. The musuem is not very large, but set aside minimum 1.5 hours or more. Some stuff for children as well. Well worth a visit. Permanent collections includes Picasso, Miro, Laurens, Érro, Herbin, Rouault, Giacometti and of course Matisse. Improvement would be describtions and explanations in English.

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