Vase with Flowers

This vase of flowers dates from 1944, one of the worst years of Matisse's life, though little of that shows in it. He was living inland at Vence, in the south of France, having left Nice for fear of Allied bombing. That spring the Gestapo arrested his daughter Marguerite, who had been carrying messages for the Resistance. She was tortured and put on a train for the camp at Ravensbrück in Germany. An air raid stopped the train and she escaped into the woods. His estranged wife Amélie was jailed for six months for Resistance work of her own. Through all of it Matisse stayed in the south and painted what was in front of him, flowers, fruit, the light in a room. The colour carries the feeling here, while the drawing is kept plain.