Matisse family installation 1870 (≈ 1870)
Arrival in Bohain-en-Vermandois for seeding.
2004
Repurchase by the General Council
Repurchase by the General Council 2004 (≈ 2004)
Start of museum project.
2006-2008
Building renovation
Building renovation 2006-2008 (≈ 2007)
Work before opening.
février 2008
Opening of the museum
Opening of the museum février 2008 (≈ 2008)
Open to the public.
2012
Label *Houses of the Illustrators*
Label *Houses of the Illustrators* 2012 (≈ 2012)
National Heritage Recognition.
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui Aujourd'hui (≈ 2025)
Position de référence.
Key figures
Henri Matisse - Painter
He lived there as a child (1870-1890).
Émile Hippolyte Henri Matisse - Father, seeder
Manage family seeding.
Anna Héloïse Matisse - Mother, store manager
Selled seeds and colors.
Origin and history
Henri Matisse House is a municipal museum located in Bohain-en-Vermandois, Aisne, France. Located in the house where Henri Matisse lived during her childhood, it was acquired in 2004 by the General Council of Aisne. After renovation work between 2006 and 2008, the museum opened in February 2008. It was labeled Maisons des Illustres in 2012, highlighting its heritage importance linked to the artist's youth.
The Matisse family moved to Bohain-en-Vermandois in January 1870, where Émile Hippolyte Henri and Anna Héloïse took over a seed plant. This trade, located at the corner of the streets Little Aise and the Castle, sold seeds, colours, fertilizers and fodder. Henri Matisse, then eight days old, spent nearly twenty years there, a training period for his future work. The house housed both the family housing, the store, and a seed preparation workshop with its stable for the draught horses.
The ground floor, now transformed into Café Colores, was once the living and dining room of the Matisses. It now hosts temporary exhibitions. Upstairs, the family rooms were converted into museum spaces, including a reconstruction of the painter's childhood room. The inner courtyard, the heart of seed activity, connected living and working spaces, while the stable, still visible, bears witness to the transport of goods by Ardennes horses.
The preserved seed plant houses original, restored and functional machines, illustrating seed processing processes. Two upstairs rooms are dedicated to the local textile industry, flourishing in the Matisse era. Bohain-en-Vermandois, the major hub of this activity, exported its fabrics (baskets, barèges) to Europe and America, supplying figures such as Coco Chanel and the tsars of Russia.
The museum highlights the links between Matisse's childhood and its environment: the colours of seeds and fabrics, the landscapes of the North, and the industrial atmosphere of the region. These elements marked his imagination, as his later works show. The museum project aims to preserve this memory while valuing the local heritage, between art and social history.
