The Missing Matisse

September 12, 2016
Matisse, grandson of painter Henri Matisse and son of sculptor Jean Matisse, believes that “creating is a part of my spiritual DNA.” This debut memoir details his search for identity, which, in turn, produced a deeper yearning for spiritual connection. Shuttling between Paris and the French countryside for much of his childhood, he developed a love of photography and boats, and during World War II he carried messages and forged documents for the French Resistance. At age 12, Matisse was informed by his mother, Louise, that his name was legally Pierre Leroy. He sensed a shameful secret but didn’t learn the details until years later: while married to Camille Leroy, Louise had an affair with Jean Matisse—Pierre’s birth father. She and Camille divorced just after Pierre’s birth, but Camille bitterly insisted on keeping the boy linked to him. Recreated dialogue and present-tense narration enliven the high-action scenes of the war years, but the memoir’s final sections sprint through seven more decades, including emigration to North America, various careers, and four marriages. Matisse, now a retired painter and paper collagist based in Florida, came late to the Christian faith. His hunt for his
parentage, culminating in the decision
to reclaim the Matisse name in his 60s, nicely parallels his search for identity in Christ.

September 15, 2016
The grandson of artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954) recalls his adolescence in Nazi-occupied France.Most of Matisse's debut memoir focuses on his experiences during World War II, when he abetted his father's underground missions; attended schools where he suffered from lice, bullies, and censorious administrators; and nearly starved on meager food rations. In Paris, he sometimes got vitamin cookies from the Red Cross, donated by American Quakers. His clothing was "a hodgepodge of hand-me-downs" that he quickly outgrew. For the most part, the author captures his teenage voice and perspective, imbuing the memoir with the tone of a picaresque novel. He portrays himself as daring, sassy, and curious. His curiosity makes all the more unbelievable the mystery at the heart of the book: the missing Matisse of the title, it turns out, is not one of his grandfather's paintings but the author's identity. When he was 12, before enrolling him in a boarding school, his mother told him that he was to be known by another surname, not Matisse, adding no explanation. Nor did the author ask about this sudden change even though he forthrightly asked about much else. He wondered if he was really the son of the man he called Papa, whom he respected and loved. After the vivid chapters that take place during the war, the narrative loses momentum. While living in Normandy, Matisse learned that his parents divorced, which shocked him, but his mother offered little explanation. A few weeks later he got word that his mother was dying, destitute, in a run-down hospital, an incredible fate for the daughter-in-law of France's most famous artist. But again, there was no explanation. Inexplicably estranged from his once-adored Papa, Matisse, married, moved to Canada and later the United States. He divorced three times and finally met the love of his life. A candid portrayal of wartime privations is followed by a blur of unexamined events.

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