Petite main chez Henri Matisse

She was very young, hardly twenty years old, and was paid 8000 francs gross per month. She was the assistant in a painter’s workshop, sharpened his pencils, dried his brushes and bought his motive-filled paper for his collages. She also knew how to take care of the house and put on a record of Gregorian songs when he wished to concentrate. A rather banal existence all things considered, except that it was in 1948, between Vence and Nice and that the painter was none other than Henri Matisse. Sixty years later, Jacqueline Duhême, who in the meantime has become an illustrator for children, has written her memoirs. The book is intended for children but the anecdotes on Picasso, looking for a can of sardines to complement his daily vegetable soup, on Chagall, when he came to offer this neighbor a cactus, on Colette, Aragon or Tériade are maybe even more appealing to grown-ups. The light shed on Matisse’s daily life is also quite touching, from the manner in which he peeled a pineapple to reading Chateaubriand out loud to put himself to sleep …

• Petite main chez Henri Matisse, text and illustrations by Jacqueline Duhême, Gallimard, 2009, 62 p., 17 €, ISBN : 978-2-07-062047