Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 6th March 2025
Sophie Haydock’s ‘The Flames was one of my favourite books of 2022. I was utterly captivated by the world of artist Egon Schiele and the depiction of 20th Century Vienna. Even more so, the female muses that Schiele painted and was inspired by were characters that were instantly memorable. The writer imagines their interactions and relationships with Schiele, their love and admiration but also their bitterness and anger, in what feels like a meticulously researched work of fiction.
These themes and ideas are also very much the focus of the Sophie Haydock’s new novel Madame Matisse however here we are transported to 1930s France and to the life of French visual artist Henri Matisse. Even though both books have at their centre a male artist, it is the women that are the true focus and are at the heart of each novel. Their relationship with the creator, how they handle the challenges that the relationship brings about alongside their struggle to find their own selves within the particular society they inhabit and the respective constraints it poses is all incorporated within the pages of this book.
In Madame Matisse the narrative is driven by Matisse’s wife Amelie, a woman that defied society by marrying ‘beneath’ her and gave everything to support her husband’s passion and dreams. There is also Lydia Delectorskaya, a young Russian emigree and muse of Matisse, whose traumatic past we go back in time to discover. Thirdly, there is Matisse’s daughter from his first marriage Marguerite, who navigates a fraught political landscape with bravery and determination. I knew nothing about these women prior to reading the book and it was fascinating to explore 1930s France and the lives they inhabited. Sophie Haydock is so adept at creating characters with all their nuances and flaws, it has left me feeling like I want to find out more about these bold and brave women who will stay with me for a long time to come.
Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC
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