Narrator 1: The French artist Jacqueline Matisse Monnier is the granddaughter of painter Henri Matisse and came to meet Brancusi through her family’s connections. In 2011, she shared this anecdote about the comfort she found in Brancusi’s studio:
Narrator 2: I first visited Brancusi’s studio with my mother, in the winter of 1949–50, when I was a student at the Sorbonne. As a student, I didn’t know many people in Paris, and luckily, I used to visit Brancusi in the impasse Ronsin about once a week to have a good meal.
I remember you had to go through a thick wooden doorway that Brancusi had sculpted to get from the main room into the kitchen, where we often ate together. He made delicious lunches in a stove that he had designed for grilling, and that was always wonderful, and we dined at the large round plaster of Paris table. We often talked about new books, particularly books about mysticism, which he enjoyed. And, of course, we talked about art.
When I first saw his studio, I loved it. The studio was all white, which was rather unusual at the time. I recall he gave me a tour when I first arrived. All his sculptures were his ‘babies’. He would keep black cloths over most of them. He would carefully take off the cloths, fold them, preciously store them away, and shine each piece before he would show it to you. If any sculpture needed to be manipulated—a few turned on their bases—he preferred to do it himself.
He was so proud of his work, and would look and look at his pieces.
Narrator 1: This audio was generated with automated voices.
Excerpted from: Jacqueline Matisse Monnier, “Memories of Brancusi,” in Serra/Brancusi, ed. Oliver Wick, exh. cat., Fondation Beyler, Riehen/Basel, Ostifildern: Hatje Cantz, 2011, p. 41.