Stephan Reichmann

That was a long journey.

I saw Matisse's silhouettes so often in Nice, south of France and elsewhere. These colours and this masterful lightness of composition. His very last work ‘L'Escargot / The snail’ from 1952 and 1953 then became the template for my series in 6 pieces, started in 2024 after my summer holiday in the south of France. I couldn't unfortunately continue with it for several months. The sketches remained speechless. No story, no atmosphere, no nothing.

And then the big yeahhhh! The memory of 6 small silhouettes that Matisse never used. But the Musée Matisse in Nice had put them out of their archives, had framed them and exhibited them temporarily as a small group. Taking these I could complete the unfinished ‘L'Escargot’ canvases in the same colours (black, red, green and blue) as he used and I only changed in variations of form.

Watch here the making showing the series of 6 paintings at the artist's studio in spring 2025 with the ballet music by Igor Stravinsky`s "Le chant du rossignol / Song of the Nightingale" conducted by Pierre Boulez.
Matisse once collaborated with Stravinsky doing the designs for the ballet "Le chant du rossignol / Song of the Nightingale" of the first nights at Opera Paris in 1920.