Musée Matisse du Cateau-Cambrésis

This post is also available in: Dutch

The Musée Matisse du Cateau-Cambrésis is situated in the French village of Le Cateau-Cambrésis. This is the place where Henri Matisse was born in 1869. The museum (near Cambray) is certainly worth a visit. It was founded by Matisse himself in 1952 and reopened after a thorough renovation in 1982. After his death, his family donated many paintings to the museum. I visited the museum on my way to Paris (hotel booked on the way and the next morning the museum also visited a tip). It is only a short detour if you drive from the Netherlands to Paris.

If you are an admirer of Henri Matisse like me, this museum MuseeMatisse is very nice to visit. When I visited the museum there were more attendants than visitors, and I actually think that it is never very busy, but that is so nice, where else can you find that!
In this rather unknown museum, Musee Matisse about 170 works of Matisse are hanging and that is a fair amount. You can easily spend a morning in the museum. It also offers a good overview of his works over time. There are also some unique photographs of him himself. It is special to see the face of this artist in his time. You will also find works by Picasso, Chagall, Miró, Rouault, Léger, and Giacometti, which is a considerable bonus. You can also take an audio tour with a very good and extensive explanation.

Henri Matisse has always been very interested in artists around him and it is therefore not surprising that the museum always offers space to artists who are inspired by his work. When you view the website you can see exactly which exhibitions there are. The museum that is open every day except Tuesday is, in any case, recommended to visit

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