{"id":3575,"date":"2016-12-31T07:38:57","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T15:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/?p=3575"},"modified":"2016-12-31T07:39:46","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T15:39:46","slug":"matisse-and-nun-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/2016\/12\/matisse-and-nun-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Matisse and the Nun: A Pure Love Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"RosarienkapelleVence2-Patheos\"<\/a>Today, Dec. 31, is the birthday of French artist (and atheist) Henri Matisse<\/a>. Toward the end of his life, after surgery, he needed a nurse. The young woman who replied became a close friend \u2014 and later a Dominican nun. Matisse created the Chapelle du Rosaire (Chapel of the Rosary) for her in Vence, France.<\/p>\n

From ARTNews<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n

In 1941, a nursing student named Monique Bourgeois responded to an ad placed by Henri Matisse for a \u201cyoung and pretty night nurse.\u201d Five years later the friendship that developed between Matisse and Bourgeois, by then a Dominican nun named Sister Jacques-Marie, would culminate in the creation of what Matisse considered his life\u2019s greatest achievement: the Chapel of the Rosary in Venice.<\/p>\n

Sister Jacques-Marie, the woman Matisse called \u201cthe true initiator of the chapel,\u201d died last fall of respiratory failure and other causes at Les Embruns, a rehabilitation center in Bidart, France, where she had been director. She was 84, according to Barbara Freed, a professor of French studies at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who directed a 2003 documentary on their relationship, A Model for Matisse: The Story of the Vence Chapel<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

In a letter to his friend Andre Rouveyre, Matisse likened his near-flirtation with Sister Jacques-Marie to a \u201cfleur-tation,\u201d because \u201cwhat takes place between us is like a shower of flowers\u2014rose petals that we throw at each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Sister Jacques-Marie\u2019s October funeral in the Vence chapel, which was attended by Matisse family members, her casket was surrounded by masses of anemones, the artist\u2019s favorite flower and the inspiration for the chapel\u2019s candelabra.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sister Jacques died in 2005. From the New York Times<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n

With the aid of a monk convalescing at the rest home, Matisse roughed out a sketch for a chapel, and Sister Jacques\u00ad Marie made the working model. Soon Matisse immersed himself in every aspect of the chapel, from the brushstroke sketches of a Stations of the Cross mural to the vestments and the slender Crucifixion altarpiece. The stained\u00ad glass windows, with one pair, \u201cTree of Life,\u201d suggestive of a flowering cactus, are regarded as particular triumphs\u037e they allow lemon \u00adyellow, bottle\u00adgreen and blue light to play capriciously against white\u00ad tiled walls and the marble floor.<\/p>\n

Sister Jacques\u00ad Marie did preliminary design work and offered candid evaluations. As important, she ran interference with her local superior, who disapproved of a chapel designed by an artist known for his nudes. In the end, Matisse described the chapel as \u201ctheir shared project.\u201d When Sister Jacques\u00ad Marie told Matisse that she believed he was inspired by God Almighty, he replied gently, \u201cYes, but that god is me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the months before Matisse died in 1954, Sister Jacques\u00ad Marie tried to get him to agree to be buried in his own chapel. Instead he was buried in Nice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God works in mysterious ways, indeed.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to buy the whole documentary mentioned above, and here<\/a> for the trailer (it\u2019s on Vimeo and can\u2019t be embedded).<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0Wikimedia Commons<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss a thing: head over to my other home at\u00a0CatholicVote\u00a0<\/a>and like my\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>; also like the\u00a0Patheos Catholic<\/a>\u00a0FB page to see what my colleagues have to say.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, Dec. 31, is the birthday of French artist (and atheist) Henri Matisse. Toward the end of his life, after surgery, he needed a nurse. The young woman who replied became a close friend \u2014 and later a Dominican nun. Matisse created the Chapelle du Rosaire (Chapel of the Rosary) for her in Vence, France. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2174,"featured_media":3576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,4],"tags":[734],"class_list":["post-3575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith-practice","category-media","tag-henri-matisse"],"yoast_head":"\nMatisse and the Nun: A Pure Love Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When atheist artist Henri Matisse and a young French Catholic woman came together, the result was an unlikely friendship ... and a masterpiece.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/2016\/12\/matisse-and-nun-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matisse and the Nun: A Pure Love Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When atheist artist Henri Matisse and a young French Catholic woman came together, the result was an unlikely friendship ... and a masterpiece.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/2016\/12\/matisse-and-nun-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kate O'Hare's Pax Culturati\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-31T15:38:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-12-31T15:39:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/524\/2016\/12\/RosarienkapelleVence2-Patheos.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"299\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kate O'Hare\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@KateOHareWrites\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kate O'Hare\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/2016\/12\/matisse-and-nun-love\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/2016\/12\/matisse-and-nun-love\/\",\"name\":\"Matisse and the Nun: A Pure Love Story\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-31T15:38:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-31T15:39:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/#\/schema\/person\/1660bc64bfc9f67a4a8592d17e59213b\"},\"description\":\"When atheist artist Henri Matisse and a young French Catholic woman came together, the result was an unlikely friendship ... and a masterpiece.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/2016\/12\/matisse-and-nun-love\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/2016\/12\/matisse-and-nun-love\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/2016\/12\/matisse-and-nun-love\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Matisse and the Nun: A Pure Love Story\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/\",\"name\":\"Kate O'Hare's Pax Culturati\",\"description\":\"Making Peace With the Culture, and Those Who Create It\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/#\/schema\/person\/1660bc64bfc9f67a4a8592d17e59213b\",\"name\":\"Kate O'Hare\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kateohare\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/512f9f9d2774f59918c8275c4a9c653c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/512f9f9d2774f59918c8275c4a9c653c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kate O'Hare\"},\"description\":\"Journalism, screenwriting, Seahawks ... 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