In the late 1940s, an infirm and increasingly despondent Henri Matisse made repeat journeys along the French Riviera from his hideaway in Vence to Antibes. It was a most peculiar pilgrimage.

Matisse, then a 29-year-old struggling artist, discovered Van Gogh’s work at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in Paris. He fell in ...

I was lying on my bed, scrolling mindlessly through Instagram, when a photo of a bedroom – white walls, large patterned rug, framed print of Henri Matisse’s Blue Nude II on the wall – slid ...