Matisse, the Mediterranean, and the Biennale That Brings the Sea to the Streets of Nice 

An exhibition in Nice celebrates Henri Matisse’s maritime inspirations, coinciding with the UN Oceans Conference to explore art’s dialogue with marine conservation.

In June 2025, Nice becomes the stage for a historic global summit: the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC), a landmark gathering of world leaders, scientists, and environmental advocates set to shape the future of our seas. In step with this momentous occasion, Nice is launching its 6th Biennale of the Arts, reimagined for 2025 as “La Mer Autour de Nous” (The Sea Around Us). Blending art, science, and civic engagement, the Biennale transforms the city into a vast creative canvas dedicated to exploring our deep, fragile, and urgent relationship with the ocean. 

“Protecting the oceans begins with learning to observe them, understand them, and feel the urgency of their preservation. In this mission, artists play an essential role: they awaken sensibilities, mobilize the collective imagination, and raise awareness,” explains Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice. 

For the first time, the Biennale extends beyond museum walls, spilling into the streets of the city. Nice becomes an open-air museum dedicated to the sea, inviting locals and visitors alike to engage with the ocean as a source of inspiration. 

At the helm of the curatorial vision are Jean-Jacques Aillagon, former French Minister of Culture, and Hélène Guenin, former Director of MAMAC (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Nice). Together, they’ve curated an expansive program featuring 11 exhibitions across seven museums, along with installations at creative hubs such as Le 109, Palais Lascaris, and Villa Arson. For the first time, the public can follow an art trail through the city, and along the iconic Promenade des Anglais. 

“The ocean, cradle of life and thermostat of the planet, has long remained a terra incognita,” the curators note. “Now, as its survival hangs in the balance, these exhibitions offer a journey through time and imagination.” 

Among the highlights is “Matisse Méditerranée(s)”, a landmark exhibition and one of the Biennale’s central pillars. It dives into Henri Matisse’s relationship with the Mediterranean, his muse, his horizon, and his home. From his first travels to Corsica in 1898 through to his decades living and working in Nice (1917–1954), Matisse drew endless inspiration from the sea’s light, colour, and cultural confluence. 

Featuring over 150 works, including 44 paintings, 90 drawings and engravings, and a rich archive, the exhibition explores how Mediterranean landscapes, cultures, and histories shaped Matisse’s visual language. Through works like La Plage rouge, Le Bonheur de vivre, and La Vague, we see how the motifs of sea, shore, and window became his compositional tools, and metaphysical symbols. 

Fittingly, Matisse’s former studio and apartment, from where he created many of the works on show, overlooked the Promenade des Anglais, just steps from where UNOC will be held at the Port of Nice. 

Set within the hilltop district of Cimiez, the Musée Matisse occupies a 17th-century villa surrounded by Roman ruins and lush gardens. Since opening in 1963, it has housed a significant collection donated by the artist and his family—some of whom attended the vernissage on May 7th. This is the first time the theme of the sea has been explored as a dedicated exhibition within Matisse’s work, and several pieces on view have never before been exhibited in Nice, including rare loans from MoMA (New York), the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Centre Pompidou. 

Among the most striking is Baigneuses à la Tortue (Bathers with a Turtle), an ambitious early 1900s painting that reflects Matisse’s deep, physical connection to water, a theme that courses through his oeuvre. The pointillist textures of Luxe, Calme et Volupté, painted during a 1904 summer with Paul Signac in St Tropez, are alive with colourful, sunlit vitality. And Le Violoniste à la fenêtre, painted during one of Matisse’s earliest stays in Nice, captures his view, and one of his favourite hobbies, from a studio on the Quai des États-Unis. 

One of the most poignant works is La Piscine. Created in 1952 at the age of 83, Matisse covered the four walls of his studio at the Hôtel Régina with a paper cut-out seascape. “I like to look at it because I always loved the sea,” he said, “and as I am not able to swim anymore, I surrounded myself with the ocean.” That original work now belongs to MoMA, but a ceramic version, commissioned by Matisse’s grandson Claude Duthuit and crafted by ceramist Hans Spinner, lives in Nice. Made of blue-and-white ceramic tiles over lava stone, it faithfully reproduces the dimensions of the original room, and invites you to step into a seascape work, just as Henri Matisse would have experienced it.  

As Nice becomes a nexus of cultural and ecological discourse this summer, La Mer Autour de Nous unites beauty with urgency. Calling for us to think of the sea as legacy, lifeblood, and inspiration. 

Key Dates 

Nice 2025 Biennale des Arts et de l’Océan 

La Mer Autour de Nous 

May – October 2025 

11 exhibitions, 1 art trail through the city 

Matisse Mediteranée(s) Exhibition 

Until 8th September 2025 

Musée Matisse 

Open Every day except Tue. 

www.musee-matisse-nice.org/en/