Matisse the King of Color

Description

(back cover)
When Monique, a young visiting nurse, steps into the home of an elderly patient, she finds herself in rooms filled with the most vivid colors she has ever seen. Her patient is the artist Henri Matisse, one of the greatest colorists in the history of art. Though they become friends, life’s circumstances send them each in different directions until they meet again several years later. It is this second encounter that inspires them to begin an extraordinary and creative project. The result is the dazzling Matisse Chapel that stands today in southern France–the artist’s final masterpiece.

Matisse the King of Color is one more title in author and illustrator Laurence Anholt’s series of stories about world famous artists and the young people who knew them. In each of these books Anholt’s fine illustrations include copies of works by the featured artist.

Anholt’s Artists titles available from Barron’s
Degas and the Little Dancer
Leonardo and the Flying Boy
Matisse the King of Color
The Magical Garden of Claude Monet
Picasso and the Girl with a Ponytail
van Gogh and the Sunflowers When Monique, a young visiting nurse, steps into the home of an elderly patient, she finds herself in rooms filled with the most vivid color she has ever seen. Her patient is the artist Henri Matisse, and as Matisse recovers from his illness, he and Monique become good friends. Later, Monique enters a convent where she becomes a nursing nun–and by happy coincidence, she meets Matisse once again. Her religious order is so poor that they don’t have a chapel of their own, but Matisse decides that with Monique’s help, he can remedy that situation. He develops a sketch drawn by Monique into a brilliant set of stained-glass chapel windows, and then uses his influence to raise enough money for the chapel’s construction. This true account of Matisse and the chapel at Vence, in southern France, is the main focus of Laurence Anholt’s newest delightful children’s story. Anholt’s illustrations faithfully reproduce many of Matisse’s wonderful artworks in this beautiful storybook. “The bright and cheerful illustrations draw heavily on Matisse’s drawings, paintings, and collages. Facts about the artist’s life and style are also skillfully woven into the story and illustrations. Whether in an art-themed storytime or one-on-one sharing, readers will find this book uplifting.”
—School Library Journal, February 2008

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