Madame Matisse by Sophie Haydock

Book Blurb
This is the story of three women – one an orphan and refugee who finds a place in the studio of a famous French artist, the other a wife and mother who has stood by her husband for nearly forty years. The third is his daughter, caught in the crossfire between her mother and a father she adores.

Amelie is first drawn to Henri Matisse as a way of escaping the conventional life expected of her. A free spirit, she sees in this budding young artist a glorious future for them both. Ambitious and driven, she gives everything for her husband’s art, ploughing her own desires, her time, her money into sustaining them both, even through years of struggle and disappointment.

Lydia Delectorskaya is a young Russian emigree, who fled her homeland following the death of her mother. After a fractured childhood, she is trying to make a place for herself on France’s golden Riviera, amid the artists, film stars and dazzling elite. Eventually she finds employment with the Matisse family. From this point on, their lives are set on a collision course….

Marguerite is Matisse’s eldest daughter. When the life of her family implodes, she must find her own way to make her mark and to navigate divided loyalties.

My Review
Henri Matisse is a name we all know as one of the twentieth centuries most famous artists, but what about the women in his life? In Madam Matisse Sophie Haydock takes the focus away from the artist and on to three women who played a pivotal part in his life and career; his wife Amélie, his daughter Marguerite and Lydia, his companion in later life. This is a story of love, passion and betrayal that will capture you from the first page.

I loved Sophie Haydock’s first book The Flames which focused on the women in Egon Schiel’s life, and in this second book she again puts the women in an artist’s life at the centre of the book. In three parts, Madame Matisse sees each of the women’s lives play out, their hopes and dreams and their love for Henri Matisse. The Eponymous Madame Matisse is Amélie, married to Henri for forty two years. Out of the three characters it is her that I felt most connected to, and ultimatly most empathy for. They always say behind every successful man is a woman and this is true in Amélie’s case. She had belief in him when he had doubt, she made sure that he was able to paint by pawning jewellery and gave up her dreams to help him achieve his. She had a strength and confidence about her, even when fame came calling and she no longer was at the centre of his world.

The most fascinating story had to be Lydia’s. As a child she fled with her aunt from Revolutionary Russia to China until at nineteen travelling to France. She enters the world of Matisse when she becomes a companion and assistant to Amêlie whose health declines in old age. She went through so much, orphaned at young age and fleeing her home and being in the Matisse home gives her security and a family. Marguerite was the woman I felt most sorry for. She was incredibly loyal to her father, but also his harshest critic, and when life becomes troubled it is her at the centre of it, trying to mediate and placitate.

Sophie Haydock breathes life into these incredible women and gives us insight into their lives and that of Henri, she shows great empathy for her characters that then makes the reader feel the same. This is a work of fiction but Sophie Haydock seamlessly blends the fact and fiction. She has obviously put a lot of time and effort into researching the characters and stays fairly true to the historical facts and grounds this with historical references, like the Thérèsw Humbert Affaire, that saw friends of Matisse’s wife commit one of the largest frauds in France’s history. Her writing is colourful and descriptive, capturing the settings and atmosphere of the period; in her own way she paints a picture as vivid as a Matisse with her words.

Madam Matisse is a wonderful read and even better than her previous book The Flames. I find it refreshing that she has chosen to concentrate on the women in artists lives, the pivitol part they play whilst she captures their essence so naturally. Being a lover of art I’m hoping that Sophie Haydock stays with this theme of artists as it is a fascinating view to take. Simply stunning, I highly recommend this book and her previous book The Flames.

I’d like to thank Doubleday and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for my invite to be part of this blog tour in return for my honest review.