Royal Academy of Arts

21/10/2026

Matisse first dipped his toes in the South during the summer of 1905.

He stayed in Collioure, a small fishing village near the Spanish border, with his friend André Derain.

12 years and one World War later, Matisse returns south to recover from bronchitis.

He spends a month cooped up in a hotel room, hiding from the biting cold and lashing rain. Frustrated by the weather, he packed his bags to leave. The very next morning, the clouds dispersed, and the light poured through his window.

Captivated by the beauty, Matisse unpacked and stayed in Nice for the rest of his life.

The French Riviera gave Matisse the creative freedom to keep evolving throughout his life, from his sun-drenched interiors to the radical paper cut-outs he made as his health deteriorated.

15/10/2026

13/10/2026

We joined in his studio as he prepares for Sculpture 2026.

‘Eye of the Needle’ has 1,110 metal pieces, and a dash of poetry. He tells us about the sculpture’s intentional ambiguity – and how he knows if it will succeed.

On display at Regent’s Park until 1 November.

09/10/2026

It's 1941 and Matisse is recovering from major surgery in Nice.

Monique Bourgeois, a young nurse, helped care for him, sometimes even posing for his artworks. A few years later, Monique would become a Dominican nun in the nearby town of Vence.

She later showed Matisse her design for a stained-glass window for the sisters' new chapel. His initial offer to help snowballed into him designing the whole building.

Matisse was in his late 70s, and often had to work from his bed or wheelchair. Despite this, he created the coloured windows, drawings on the walls, and even designed the altar, crucifix and priests' vestments.

He the chapel "the result of a lifetime of work" and considered his masterpiece.

09/10/2026

09/10/2026

It's 1941 and Matisse is recovering from major surgery in Nice.

Monique Bourgeois, a young nurse, helped care for him, sometimes even posing for his artworks. A few years later, Monique would become a Dominican nun in the nearby town of Vence.
She later showed Matisse her design for a stained-glass window for the sisters' new chapel. His initial offer to help snowballed into him designing the whole building.

Matisse was in his late 70s, and often had to work from his bed or wheelchair. Despite this, he created the coloured windows, drawings on the walls, and even designed the altar, crucifix and priests' vestments.

He the chapel "the result of a lifetime of work" and considered his masterpiece.

06/10/2026

“Normandy is trodden by as many pedestrians as the Boulevard des Italiens.” — Guy de Maupassant

1. Up north, the Impressionists’ beloved Normandy was getting a little crowded.

Artists were tired of grey skies and grimy industrial cities. The south offered something else entirely: blazing light, pure colour – a kind of Arcadia.

2. In 1864, the railway was expanded along the coast to Nice.

Sleepy fishing villages that had been a long, uncomfortable journey by road or sea were suddenly a train ride from Paris.

3. The light

Henri Matisse arrived in Nice in 1917 to recover from bronchitis and never left.

The light he encountered was radically different from the grey northern light he knew: stronger colour, sharper contrasts, a landscape in which light itself seemed to alter what could be seen.

"When I realised that every morning I would see this light again, I could not describe my joy.” - Matisse

02/10/2026

We just opened our biggest exhibition in a decade.

Painting the French Riviera tells the story of how the Côte d'Azur dazzled modern art's great innovators.

The radiance of the coast left an indelible mark on artists. It roused the imaginations not only of the 19th and 20th centuries' greatest painters – among them Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne, Renoir and Klein – but giants of literature, cinema and fashion, whose works helped define the carefree glamour and eternal romance of the Côte d'Azur.

Open now until 31 January.

02/10/2026

Sun, sea and nudes 🌊

Find out why called our exhibition a spirit-lifting show, or, even better, a psychedelic experience according to .

Now open until January 31.

Supported by Kenneth C. Griffin and Griffin Catalyst, The Idan & Batia Ofer Family Foundation, the Huo Family Foundation, , , , and David and Molly Lowell Borthwick.

29/09/2026

“A near miracle of light and colour” - .independent

The French Riviera’s azure skies and cerulean waters made an unforgettable impression on artists like Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne and Renoir. What they created there changed the face of modern art forever.

From Arcadian paradise to a hotspot of mid-century glamour, the French Riviera has been a catalyst of creativity for over a century 💙