Throughout his career, Henri Matisse would return repeatedly to paint his favourite model: his illegitimate daughter, Marguerite. In what is considered his most famous portrait, she is depicted holding a black cat. In others, she is reading, relaxing and sleeping, most often with a high-neck blouse, a ribbon or a scarf covering a tracheotomy scar. While her face is familiar, little else is known of the artist’s eldest child. Despite her fragile health, Marguerite joined the French resistance, was tortured by the Gestapo, faced deportation to a Nazi concentration camp, and remained a discreet and comforting presence in Matisse’s life...
Monitoring Antisemitism Intel
