Matisse's Second Life: Convalescence and Creation in Wartime

Henri Matisse, writing to his friend Albert Marquet on January 16, 1942, described feeling as if he were living a second life after undergoing duodenal surgery in 1941. The operation, performed in Lyon, was expected to be fatal, and Matisse prepared for death far from his beloved Nice and Nazi-occupied Paris. Contrary to medical predictions, he survived and later signed a letter as "your Lazarus, the Resurrected." During his convalescence, Matisse experienced a dreamlike state between life and death, which he described as inhabiting a second life. This period profoundly influenced his subsequent work, including his celebrated cut-outs and the design of the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence.