Private Collection, France
Georges and Lois de Menil (acquired in Paris on March 17, 1981)
A gift from the above to the present owner

This charming picture painted en plein air was completed while Matisse was working in the south of France.  The climate and light of the Provençal region were perfect conditions for painting outdoors, and Matisse would occasionally venture out of his studio and take advantage of the favorable weather.  The fresh, open-air setting of this picture is in sharp contrast to the interior scenes that Matisse had painted earlier, and the techniques that he uses to render the landscape capture the palpable details of the atmosphere.  In this picture, as in similar out-door pictures from these years, Matisse applies his colors selectively, choosing both cool and brighter green tones that are offset by lines of black.  The passing storm lends a powerful sense of drama to an otherwise peaceful, beautiful landscape as encroaching light on the horizon illuminates the trees in the foreground.

In a defensive letter to his wife, Matisse was quick to remind her that his seclusion was a necessity for the family’s financial well-being.  In the second volume of her biography on the artist, Spurling recounts this episode: "Matisse’s isolation was more nearly complete than it had ever been before in these years when for long periods he cut himself off from even the support of his family. 'You say I’m leading a nice peaceful existence down here,' he wrote when his wife reproached him… for leaving her to cope along with the turmoil of family life, '– don’t forget that my storms take place in my work, which is the rudder that steers our whole house'” (Hilary Spurling, Matisse the Master, A Life of Henri Matisse, The Conquest of Colour, 1909-1954, New York, 2005, p. 256).

Fig. 1, Matisse painting en plein air near Nice, Spring 1917