The Musée Matisse Nice is lending two major works from its collections to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
“Matisse’s FEMME AU CHAPEAU: A Modern Scandal” AT THE San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (UNITED STATES)
From 16 May to 13 September 2026
The Musée Matisse Nice is delighted to contribute to the exhibition “Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). This event revisits one of the founding episodes of modern art: the presentation of the Femme au chapeau [Woman with a Hat] at the Salon d’Automne in 1905, a work that disrupted the conventions of painting with its unprecedented use of colour and marked the emergence of Fauvism.
Bringing together more than 90 works by artists from several generations, the exhibition places this iconic painting in its historical context, while highlighting its lasting influence on the history of art, from Matisse’s contemporaries to today’s artists. A reconstruction of the 1905 Salon d’Automne room allows visitors to recapture the spirit of the exhibition that sparked one of the most famous art scandals of the 20th century.
On this occasion, the Musée Matisse Nice is lending two major works from its collections, which attest to the essential role played by the artist’s wife, Amélie Matisse, in his research as a painter:
– Albert Marquet, Portrait of Madame Henri Matisse, 1900;
– Henri Matisse, Portrait of Madame Matisse, 1905.
These loans illustrate the Musée Matisse Nice’s ongoing commitment to research, academic cooperation and the international circulation of its collections, allowing the works kept in Nice to engage in dialogue with the greatest masterpieces of modern art in landmark exhibitions.