At the Grand Palais, Matisse's latest metamorphosis unfolds on a grand scale.

With Matisse, 1941-1954, the Grand Palais focuses on a decisive period and one that has long been less isolated in itself: the last thirteen years of the painter's creative output, following the serious operation that nearly cost him his life in 1941. The exhibition shows how, physically weakened but driven by a new impetus, Henri Matisse then entered a phase of exceptionally dense production, encompassing paintings, drawings, illustrated books, stained glass, textiles and especially cut-out gouaches.

An end of life transformed into a creative laboratory

This late period is far from a mere epilogue. On the contrary, it appears as a moment of synthesis, radicalization, and invention. More than 300 works are brought together, including several rarely shown in France, to follow an artist who changes his way of working without abandoning his obsessions: color, space, light, and form. The exhibition thus emphasizes the central role of the studio, which has become a living, dynamic space, where cut-outs pinned to the walls engage in a dialogue with canvases, drawings, and monumental projects.

One of the major threads running through his work is the emergence of his famous cut-out gouaches. Initially conceived as a working tool, they eventually evolved into a language in their own right. From the series related to Jazz, published in 1947, to the large panels of his mature period, we see Matisse “drawing in color” with unprecedented freedom. This technique allowed him to enlarge the scale of his compositions while simplifying the gesture, culminating in iconic works such as The Sorrow of the King, The Snail, and the Blue Nudes series.

Paintings, chapel, stained glass windows: the scope of a “second life”

The exhibition also reminds us that this “second life” is not limited to paper cutouts. Matisse continued to paint prolifically in the 1940s, notably with the Interiors of Vence, where the flat planes of color and the tensions of space reach a singular intensity. These canvases demonstrate that he never ceased exploring painting, even as he invented new approaches. The aim was not to replace one technique with another, but to expand an increasingly free artistic vocabulary.

The exhibition finally highlights his monumental ambition through decorative projects, stained-glass window designs, and elements related to the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, to which he dedicated himself from 1948 to 1951. It is here that the full scope of this final period becomes apparent: Matisse no longer thinks solely in terms of paintings, but in terms of ensembles, walls, light, and the flow of the gaze. The Grand Palais thus reveals an aging artist who does not retreat into his past work, but pushes his exploration even further, making his final years one of the most audacious periods of his entire career.