"View of Saint Tropez", 1904
Matisse, Tropezian summer
It is said that this is where Matisse found the touch that would later establish him as one of the most renowned French painters. Invited in the summer of 1904 by Signac, Matisse, his wife, and daughter spent their vacation at La Ramade, a small chalet located just behind Les Graniers, a tiny beach near Saint-Tropez.
At this precise moment, Signac was a renowned painter, founder of the Pointillist and Neo-Impressionist movements, and Matisse was an artist searching for what characterized his art. It was precisely this break between the two colleagues that would lead the latter to complete his quest. At the presentation of the painting "The Terrace, Saint Tropez," he faced harsh criticism from his elder. Unable to bear the constraints imposed by Signac, his attachment to "divisionism," he returned furiously to La Ramade to find his family.
1904:
BIRTH OF THE MATISSE TOUCH ON THE TROPEZIAN BANKS
©"LANDSCAPE OF SAINT TROPEZ AT DUSK", HENRI MATISSE, 1904 | “LUXURY, CALM AND VOLUPTY”, MATISSE, 1904.
It was his wife, Amélie, who, by trying to calm him down by taking him to the sea, would contribute to the birth of one of Matisse's first masterpieces. From this argument, the painter would imagine "Le Goûter," paving the way for a legendary career.
That winter, back in Paris, he created a new version of the painting that had established his style. “Luxury, Calm, and Voluptuousness,” directly inspired by the verses of Charles Baudelaire’s “Invitation to Travel,” evokes the theme of The Golden Age. It was purchased in 1905 by Signac, putting an end to the brief feud that had then set the two artists against each other.
© Matisse, "The Snack", 1904.
Unable to get used to the crushing heat of the Saint-Tropez summers, Matisse made the summer of 1904 his only visit to the village, preferring to spend his summer holidays in Coullioure where he met André Derain in particular. He would, however, inspire a whole generation of artists, a kind of successor, to come and color the unique character of the region. Among them, Albert Marquet, Henri Manguin and Charles Camoin. The Musée de L'Annonciade, built on the port of Saint Tropez, still preserves and presents today some of Matisse's emblematic works, perpetuating the village's heritage deeply rooted in the arts, a history that precedes the international renown that we now know in Saint Tropez.
BAUDELAIRE'S "INVITATION TO TRAVEL" AS INSPIRATION
“My child, my sister,
Think of sweetness
To go there and live together!
To love at leisure,
To love and to die
To the country that resembles you!
Wet suns
Of these cloudy skies
For my mind have the charms
So mysterious
From your treacherous eyes,
Shining through their tears.
There, all is order and beauty,
Luxury, calm and pleasure.
Polished by the years,
Would decorate our room;
The rarest flowers
Mixing their smells
With the faint scent of amber,
The rich ceilings,
The deep mirrors,
Oriental splendor,
Everything would speak there
To the soul in secret
His sweet native language.
There, all is order and beauty,
Luxury, calm and pleasure.
Sleep these vessels
Whose mood is wandering;
It is to satisfy
Your slightest desire
That they come from the ends of the earth.
The setting suns
Cover the fields,
The canals, the whole city,
Of hyacinth and gold;
The world is falling asleep
In a warm light.
There, all is order and beauty,
Luxury, calm and voluptuousness.
"SAINT JOSEPH CHAPEL", HENRI MATISSE, 1904.