Matisse: Father and Son

When Henri Matisse's wife, Am lie, permanently walked out on him in 1939 in a jealous rage over Lydia Delectorskaya, his beautiful young model (and secretary and live-in nurse), the great French painter poured out his pain and his grievances only in his correspondence with his second son, New York art dealer Pierre Matisse (1900-1989). In a captivating dual portrait, Russell, former chief art critic for the New York Times, draws on thousands of unpublished letters in the Pierre Matisse archive to illuminate an intense, difficult father-son dyad, as well as the pioneering gallery owner's tumultuous relations with his artists. Proud, reserved Pierre Matisse made the work of Mir , Giacometti and Dubuffet part of the cultural landscape of the United States; he gave Balthus his first one-man show in New York in 1938; he helped develop Americans' taste for Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Bonnard, de Chirico, Tanguy, Utrillo, Rouault and Calder. And despite Matisse p re's detestation of his son's chosen profession, and the legend that he refused to help it along, Russell shows that the painter gave his son shrewd business advice. The famous father was morbidly sensitive to every nuance, real or imagined, in his son's letters, but he also proffered fatherly counsel and comfort during family crises, such as Pierre's 1949 breakup with his second wife, and marriage to 25-year-old Patricia Echaurren, the fiery daughter of Chilean-born surrealist Matta. Furthermore, this dazzlingly illustrated biography offhandedly provides a roadmap of the evolution of Modernist art simply by charting the artists who wander into the frame and their interactions with the likes of Sartre, Rilke, Andr Breton and Walter Gropius. Doubleday Reader's Subscription main selection. (May)