Matisse 1941 – 1954 at Grand Palais

This year, The Grand Palais in Paris, opens one of the most ambitious Matisse exhibitions in recent memory, focusing on the final, fiercely inventive years of the artist’s career. Matisse. 1941–1954 brings together over 230 works: paintings, drawings, illustrated books, textiles, stained glass, and the iconic late cut-outs, tracing the decade from the wartime years to his late triumphs. It will run from 24th March to 26th July.

A leader of Fauvism, he shocked audiences with vivid, expressive paintings like Woman with a Hat (1905), and later transformed simple shapes into dynamic compositions with his famous paper cut-outs. Over a career spanning six decades, Matisse worked across painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, and ceramics, always seeking beauty, harmony, and innovation. Even in his final years, confined to a wheelchair, he continued to reinvent his practice, leaving a legacy of joy, invention, and visual brilliance that still resonates today.

Curated by Claudine Grammont in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou (currently under renovations), the exhibition highlights how Matisse, approaching eighty, transformed the limitations of age and circumstance into radical freedom.

Works such as La Tristesse du roi, Nus bleus, and the pages of Jazz demonstrate his command of colour and form, where shape and hue operate with an almost musical precision. Preparatory studies sit alongside monumental panels like La Gerbe and Les Acanthes, revealing the persistent playfulness and formal rigor of his late practice.

The show looks at Matisse’s late works as both a continuation and reinvention of his career, offering a vivid sense of the painter’s relentless experimentation and enduring joy. For audiences in Paris, it is a rare opportunity to witness the culmination of a lifetime of invention in one space. Sponsored by CHANEL.

Another great show for your calendar this year and a way to return to the majestic Grand Palais, one of Paris’ landmarks.

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