Full Description
In 1930, aged 60, Henri Matisse travelled to Tahiti to follow in the footsteps of Paul Gauguin (who had abandoned France for Tahiti in the late 19th century) and discover for himself the new forms and colours of Polynesia. Matisse lived like Robinson Crusoe, strode the streets of Papeete at dawn, canoed, swam and dived among the coral, fish and shells. A careful observer of nature and the Polynesian people, whom he compared to sea gods, Matisse absorbed the light of the Pacific and its 'purity that gives so much sparkle to colours'. This book provides an intensely personal insight into the artist's life on the island, and is full of lively ancedotes. In addition, many previously unpublished photographs and illustrations have been carefully reproduced.
