Painted during Henri Matisse’s first extended stay at the Hôtel Méditerranée et de la Côte d’Azur in Nice in the early months of 1919, Femme à l’ombrelle verte distills the qualities that would define his artistic renaissance on the Côte d’Azur: vibrant light, a heightened sense of theatricality, and the modern odalisque recast in the refined setting of the French Riviera.

Fig. 1, Henri Matisse on the balcony of his flat place Charles-Félix, Nice, 1920s © Photo: Archives Henri Matisse / D. R.

Matisse took his first room at the Méditerranée in November 1918 and, returning to Nice each autumn, would continue to reside there for the next three years, deriving inspiration from the Italian-style ceilings, old rococo decor and sunlit interiors. As Jack Cowart notes, “This hotel would become for Matisse a most fertile, expansive environment […] His first room had shuttered, double French doors opening out onto a balcony with a carved or cast balustrade [...]. Models were chosen to pose on the balcony, holding brightly colored red, green, or orange umbrellas. These parasols not only shaded them from the sun but also provided a soft irradiation of colored light that Matisse would capture on canvas” (J. Cowart, “The Place of Silvered Light,” in Exh. Cat., op. cit., 1986, p. 24). With its elegant decor and filtered Mediterranean light, the room became a stage upon which the artist choreographed a series of intimately scaled masterpieces, enabling him to explore a new visual theatre of daily life.

“When I realized that every morning I would see this light again, I could not describe my joy. I decided not to leave Nice, and I stayed there practically all my life.”
(artist quoted in Henri Matisse, Écrits et propos sur l’art, Paris, 1971, p. 123)

In Femme à l’ombrelle verte, the young Antoinette Arnoud is seated on a balcony in dappled light, her posture relaxed yet subtly composed. Sunlight is filtered through the columns of the balustrade and the veil of her green parasol, echoing the chromatic pattern of the red tiles at her feet. The open door on the left introduces a sliver of interior, though the focus remains resolutely outdoors, where the artist renders the sea, trees, and sculpted balustrade with a striking economy of form.

Left: Fig. 2, Henri Matisse, Femme assise sur un balcon, 1920-21, oil on canvas. Sold: Sotheby’s New York, May 2023, $3.9 million © SUCCESSION H. MATISSE/ DACS 2025  

Right: Fig. 3, Henri Matisse, La Séance du matin, 1924, oil on canvas. Sold: Sotheby’s New York, May 2014, $19.2 million © SUCCESSION H. MATISSE/ DACS 2025  

The visual and thematic strategies seen here resonate powerfully with Femme assise sur un balcon and La Séance du Matin (figs. 2-3), both of which feature women posed at the threshold between interior and exterior. In each, Matisse balances observation with artifice, capturing a fleeting, sunlit moment. These compositions, with their emphasis on light, leisure, and feminine presence, epitomise Matisse’s radical rethinking of the figure in space and his lifelong dialogue between sensuality and structure.

Femme à l’ombrelle verte also bears distinguished provenance, having once formed part of the collection of Pierre Berès, the legendary Parisian publisher and dealer. Berès, a close friend of Matisse and Picasso, assembled a visionary collection that bridged literary and visual modernism. This painting, acquired by Berès in 1962, hung in his Paris home, a testament to its personal resonance and aesthetic power.

Fusing modernity, leisure, and intimacy into a timeless image of Mediterranean light, Femme à l’ombrelle verte emerges as one of the most lyrical and radiant expressions of Matisse’s early Nice period. The present work has been exhibited on several important occasions, including a landmark overview of Matisse’s works executed in Nice between 1916-30 held at The National Gallery of Art in Washington. D.C. in 1986-87.