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“Matisse left Paris at the end of the first World War for the South of France. He was absolutely bowled over by the light; he was a Northerner and he had just never seen or imagined sunshine like the light in Nice. It was the light and color that really shaped the rest of his career as a painter. The pictures he began to paint then led pretty much directly to the great colored cut paper compositions that he ended his life with”—Hilary Spurling
The sale of the Peggy and David Rockefeller Collection at Christie’s blew collectors out of the water, with a total sale of $832.6 million from the entire collection. Henri Matisse’s Odalisque couchée aux magnolias sold for $80.7 million. Here, Hilary Spurling, author of an acclaimed biography of Henri Matisse, discusses the “superlative” Odalisque couchée aux magnolias from The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller, and the pivotal role of model Henriette Darricarrère.
