Matisse, a Nun, and a Chapel

Matisse was an old man in ill health and he needed a nurse. The young lady who applied became his friend and his model. Later she became a nun and they built a beautiful chapel together in Vence, France.

Night Nurse

Night Nurse Needed – Should be young and pretty. This was the ad Henri Matisse placed with the nursing school in Nice, France in 1942. He was seventy-two years-old and still working while recovering from a serious surgery. He required constant care and needed someone to fill in while his regular night nurse was away.

A twenty-one-year-old, student nurse by the name of Monique Bourgeois saw the ad. She was young… but pretty? She had always been told she was plain. But as the sole breadwinner of her family, she needed the money, so she applied anyway.

Kindred Spirits

Monique and Matisse hit it off immediately. They were kindred spirits, and the artist became a grandfather-figure to her. When the great artist asked her opinion on one of his paintings, Monique answered truthfully. She said, “I like the colors a lot, but the lines… not so much.” Matisse loved her honesty.

One day, Matisse asked the young student nurse to sit for a painting. She was flattered. He gave her a lovely (and revealing) dress to wear – unlike anything she had ever worn. She must have felt very beautiful as she sat there posing for one of the greatest artists alive.

Art Critic

However, when she saw the finished product, any ideas of her beauty were dashed to the ground. She thought it was awful and she told him so. She said it was just a few lines with blobs of color and it looked nothing like her. Matisse explained that he didn’t paint what was in front of him but the emotions it produced. In her he saw an expressive face that exuded a feeling of being alive. She felt a bit better.

They became great friends, but Matisse’s regular nurse returned and life took them in different directions. But, as fate would have it, a few years later, in 1943, they ended just across the street from one another in Vence. Matisse had moved inland from Nice to escape the threat of coastal bombing, and Monique had come to the Dominican convent across from his house to recover from tuberculosis.

Friendship Rekindled

They were thrilled to rekindle their friendship, and Monique sat for a few more sessions with the aging artist. She appears in many drawings as well as four paintings: Monique (Monique in Grey Dress), L’Idol (The Idol), La Robe Verte et les Oranges (Green Dress and Oranges), and Tabac Royal.

Nurse Becomes a Nun

After her recovery, Monique decided to stay at the convent and become a nun. Matisse tried unsuccessfully to dissuade her. They parted ways, and Monique became Sister Jacques-Marie. A few months later the atheistic artist accepted her decision and wrote a long letter apologizing and wishing her the best.

Sisters Need a Chapel

At the time the Dominican Sisters were in need of a chapel, and a priest from Paris was sent to make some preliminary plans. As it turned out, he was a Matisse fan. When he learned that the great artist lived just across the street, he asked to meet him. Sister Jacques-Marie introduced him and they chatted about the new chapel. Matisse surprised them by announcing that he would take care of the windows and decoration.

Everyone was thrilled… except the Mother Superior. She didn’t want an atheist artist who painted nudes to have anything to do with their new chapel. And she stood her ground. It took the intervention of Mother Superior’s superior in Paris to enable Matisse to proceed. Sister Jacques-Marie was put in charge of keeping the peace. She called it her “four years of misery.”

Despite never having done a project like this, Matisse, age seventy-seven, threw himself into it with gusto. He designed every detail: stained-glass windows, flooring, wall decoration, lighting, even the priest’s robes.

A Scandal

The Chapelle du Rosaire opened in 1951. When the press got wind that the chapel was a joint project between Matisse and a nun who had been his model, they went looking for a scandal. The papers hinted at a secret romance, and those rumors plagued Matisse and Sister Jacques-Marie until their deaths. Matisse died in 1954, and Sister Jacques-Marie was not allowed to attend the funeral. She died in 2005 near Biarritz.

More Than One Kind of Love Affair

Both Matisse and Sister Jacques-Marie denied they had ever had a physical relationship. But they did confess to a close friendship in which the artist was like a grandfather. Matisse described it as a “fleurtation.” He said, “What takes place between us is like a shower of flowers (fleurs in French) — rose petals that we throw at each other.” At the age of 71 when Sister Jacques-Marie was asked directly whether she and Matisse had had a love affair, she replied, “Well, there is more than one kind of love affair.” Until she died, she kept a photo of the artist in her room.

• Book: If you would like to read the book that Sister Jacques-Marie wrote about her experience with Matisse and the chapel, see the Amazon link at the bottom of this page.
• Visit: You can visit Chapelle Du Rosaire (also known as the Matisse Chapel) at 466 av H.Matisse, 06140 Vence, France.  Chapel Website (in French) 
• More Matisse: You can read more about Matisse in The Artist and His Objects.

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• Image Sources: Image 1,2,3,4, —– Image 6,8, —– Image 5, —– Image 7, —– Image 9

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Margo Lestz

Margo has authored seven books and writes mostly about France and England. She has a BA in Liberal Studies with International Emphasis and enjoys travel, languages, history, writing, and experiencing other cultures.

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