Matisse & Lydia

She was Russian, and her name was Lydia Delectorskaya. She could hardly be more different from the black-eyed, black-haired models that Matisse had preferred until then. Lydia, from Siberia, has long blond hair, blue eyes, white skin and finely cut features. Lydia D. was essential to Matisse’s creativity and inspiration. An inexhaustible source of inspiration for paintings, drawings, engravings and book illustrations, Lydia posed for around ninety paintings and hundreds of drawings. «When I’m bored, I paint a portrait of Madame Lydia. I know her like the alphabet,» wrote the painter.

Lydia’s role with Matisse over more than twenty years sheds light on the artist’s creative process and the rigorous way in which his daily life was organised, centred on his work to which he devoted himself with discipline.