Madame Matisse - Blog Tour

 

Author: Sophie Haydock

Publisher: Doubleday/ Transworld 

Publishing Date: 6th March 2025

Many thanks to Random Things Tours and the publishing team for my phsyical copy of the book and a spot on the tour

Blurb 

This is the story of three women - one an orphan and refugee who finds a place in the studio of a famous French artist, the other a wife and mother who has stood by her husband for nearly forty years. The third is his daughter, caught in the crossfire between her mother and a father she adores.

Amelie is first drawn to Henri Matisse as a way of escaping the conventional life expected of her. A free spirit, she sees in this budding young artist a glorious future for them both. Ambitious and driven, she gives everything for her husband's art, ploughing her own desires, her time, her money into sustaining them both, even through years of struggle and disappointment.

Lydia Delectorskaya is a young Russian emigree, who fled her homeland following the death of her mother. After a fractured childhood, she is trying to make a place for herself on France's golden Riviera, amid the artists, film stars and dazzling elite. Eventually she finds employment with the Matisse family. From this point on, their lives are set on a collision course....

Marguerite is Matisse's eldest daughter. When the life of her family implodes, she must find her own way to make her mark and to navigate divided loyalties.

Based on a true story, Madame Matisse is a stunning novel about drama and betrayal; emotion and sex; glamour and tragedy, all set in the hotbed of the 1930s art movement in France. In art, as in life, this a time when the rules were made to be broken...

My Thoughts 

Just how stunning is this cover, even stunning in real time! My first read from this author and it was positive. 

There was a lot to unpack in this book and get to know. 

The character development was good but also intense as each women led this different life but the cross over that changes the direction of events. Although the center point to the three women was an artist called Henri Mattise, fundamentally the shift starts the three main women in his life. During the course of the book all 3 had become Madame Matisse at some stage and actions and consequences were different for each. 

The plot takes you on a trip around the world at different time stamps. from Paris, to China and through wars/ revolutions. 

I liked the structure of the book as the author gave time to each women with an epilogue to tie it all in and make sense. I liked this as it rounded off the story for each one. 

 

There is so much to say about this book but feels it gives too much away!

This was an enjoyable artsy/ historical fiction read!