On France's golden Riviera the wife of an artist gives him an ultimatum: her or me. The
dazzling new novel from Sophie Haydock author of The Flames ' Deliciously immersiv e . . .
Think of [Haydock] as the art world's answer to Philippa Gregory . . . I took Madame Matisse on
a wet grey holiday and it swept me into a world of startling splashy colour' The Spectator
'[A] sizzling story of the art world where sidelined women take centre stage. It's an
immersive tale of muses betrayal sex and bad behaviour ' Daily Mail 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...
