The Matisse Stories was published by Chatto & Windus in 1993. It contains three novellas, each inspired by a specific painting by Henri Matisse: “Medusa’s Head” (inspired by Matisse’s The Pink Nude), “Art Work” (inspired by Matisse’s Le Silence habité des maisons), and “The Chinese Lobster” (inspired by Matisse’s Le Nu rose).
Each story explores the relationship between visual beauty and human experience: in “Medusa’s Head,” a woman in a hospital contemplates a Matisse reproduction while facing a crisis of identity; in “Art Work,” a household’s domestic arrangements (a painter husband, a cleaning woman with hidden artistic gifts) reveal the gendered economics of creative production; in “The Chinese Lobster,” an academic investigating a student’s harassment complaint against a Matisse scholar must weigh the claims of art against the claims of justice.
Byatt’s method is not merely illustration (using stories to “explain” paintings) but genuine ekphrasis: the paintings become lenses through which human experience is refracted, revealing aspects invisible without their mediating presence. The stories argue that great art does not transcend human pain but illuminates it — that Matisse’s apparently joyful surfaces are achieved not despite suffering but through its transformation.
Collecting The Matisse Stories
First edition (Chatto & Windus, London, 1993): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $30–$75
- Very good: $10–$30