June 1940: The nations of Europe have folded like a house of cards before the German blitzkrieg. Only Britain remains unconquered. France has fallen and is soon divided into two regions – northern France under the direct control of the Nazis, and the Vichy puppet state in southern France.
Imagine the panic, especially among Jews but also anyone deemed a potential enemy of Germany – poets, artists, writers, intellectuals, academics. Into that group fall two of the best-known contemporary artists – Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse (1869-1954). Picasso remains in Paris. Matisse meanders his way to southern France, eventually landing in Nice. Friends and family urge him to leave, but if he does, he says, what will be left of France?
It's an awkward time in the artist’s personal life. He happened to be in Paris when France surrendered to finalize divorce proceedings brought by his wife Amelie, and he fled the city like so many others. He also needs surgery, without which he will likely die. Doctors in Lyon will eventually perform it in 1941.
Henri Matisse, about the time of the war
Some biographers have suggested that Matisse collaborated with the Vichy government. Christopher Gorham came to a very different conclusion. After all, all three of Matisse’s grown children were involved in some kind of resistance activity. His daughter Marguerite would be arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, tortured, and packed off to a prison camp in Germany. His son Jean was in the Resistance. His son Pierre lived in New York; he was helping artists and especially Jewish ones like Marc Chagall get settled and established in exile.
The suggestion of collaboration against their father didn’t make sense. Gorham took a deeper look and did extensive research. The result is Matisse at War: Art and Resistance in Nazi-Occupied France.
Gorham tells the story of how Matisse spent the war years. He describes how the artist, unable to stand to paint, turned to the scissors and his famous cut-out designs. He tracks Matisse’s major movements, visitors and the friends who came to see him, and the role played by Lydia Delectorskaya, who became his business manager, housekeeper, muse, and often-used model. He explains how Nice was, for a time while controlled by the Italians, an oasis of safety and especially for Jews, and how it came to an end.
Christopher C. Gorham
The book also tells the supporting stories of Matisse’s children and ex-wife Amelie. Marguerite is arrested in 1944, after passing coded information on D-Day to the Resistance in Brittany. Jean evaded arrest, but he was part of the Resistance as well. Amelie was also arrested and imprisoned for typing Resistance materials. And Pierre in New York was the terminus for an underground railroad operation that smuggled artists to safety. In fact, Pierre may have singlehandedly if not largely been responsible for what became known as modern art in New York City and the city’s emergence as a world art center.
Matisse at War turns out to be a fascinating, often riveting read about art, war, Nazi thefts, collaborators, victims, people who risked everything to fight, and an ailing, elderly artist who chose to stay in occupied France and do the one thing he knew to do – make art.
Gorham previously published The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America, the story of Anna Marie Rosemberg. He’s written for the Washington Post, Literary Hub, Paper Brigade, and many other publications, and is a frequent speaker at conferences, literary events, and book club gatherings. He lives in Boston.
For a related story (at Dancing Priest), see how I came to hear Gorham speak just last week and briefly met him.
Some Monday Readings
What happened to literary politicians? – Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri at The Critic Magazine.
Massive New Map Reveals 300,000 Km of Ancient Roman Roads – Michelle Starr at Science Alert.
Union Chapel, Islington – Live Music and a Nonconformist History – A London Inheritance.
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