Air Tahiti Magazine 72

Mais l’artiste n’a que faire des honneurs et des notables auxquels il fausse compagnie dès qu’on lui a désigné dans la foule une jeune femme rieuse, sculpturale, typiquement polynésienne avec sa magniﬁque chevelure brune. Il se dirige vers elle qui, d’abord surprise (la lettre, qu’il a postée, a fait le voyage avec lui sur le Tahiti) s’exclame, enthousiaste, chaleureuse. Pauline Oturau Aitamai et Étienne Schyle, son compagnon qui deviendra son mari, prennent en charge le peintre. Ils commencent par l’installer à l’hôtel Stuart, nouvellement construit sur le boulevard du front de mer qui borde le Quai du Commerce. Là, s’amarrent cotres et goélettes assurant les liaisons interinsulaires. Les grands maru maru, magniﬁques bois noirs, qui l’ombragent, encadrent la fenêtre de la chambre aux balustres blanches. Matisse capte les lignes et les formes, enregistre les images, les nuées blondes, les bleus du Paciﬁque et du ciel, la blancheur des récifs, les parois sombres, la silhouette de Moorea... Tons larges et plats. Fabuleuse lumière que le peintre absorbe, recueille, religieusement. Lumière océanienne, magique, «enivrante pour l’esprit, comparable à celle que donne l’intérieur d’une coupe en or quand l’œil y plonge», aimera répéter le peintre.

Arbres, feuillages, ﬂeurs et fruits, paysages... Matisse passe plus d’un mois dans la petite bourgade coloniale, la capitale des EFO, les Etablissements Français d’Océanie. Fait exceptionnel à cette époque où les touristes sont inconnus. Il y dessine, tous les jours, mais il ne réalise qu’une petite pochade. Comme pour Gauguin, une période d’incubation lui est indispensable pour peindre. Il remplit des carnets de dessins : arbres, feuillages, ﬂeurs et fruits, paysages, bateaux, oiseaux, poissons, femmes, principalement Pauline Schyle… Il se rend au marché de Papeete dès son premier dimanche matin, nouveau bâtiment de métal et de béton qui a remplacé, depuis peu, la vieille halle de bois. Il regarde, scrute, sent, les formes, les couleurs, les senteurs nouvelles. La foule qui s’y presse et qu’il trouve magniﬁque. Les étals qui débordent de légumes, de fruits, de ﬂeurs inconnus… le parfum de la vanille domine.... Plus loin, les poissons suspendus deux à deux, les plus gros à des cannes en bambou, les petits ﬁcelés en longues ﬁloches, révèlent des couleurs pures ou des tons inouïs, des nuances insaisissables qui le fascinent.

He keenly observes the lines, the shapes, the images, the lightly colored clouds, the blues of the Paciﬁc Ocean and sky, the whiteness of the reef, the dark mountainsides, and Moorea’s dramatic silhouette in the distance. Flat and wide tones in a color palette he has never before seen. The light is fabulous and grabs his attention in a new way...he is entirely in awe of, and charmed by this new scenery. He likes to repeat that it is: “enticing to the soul, as if I was looking into a golden cup…” when he tries to put words to he sees as an almost magic lights and tones of the ocean.

Trees, leaves, ﬂowers, fruits and landscapes Matisse spends a little over a month in the small colonial town of Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia (or EFO, Etablissements Français d’Océanie, meaning French Overseas Territories). At the time tourism is literally unheard of, so the fact that he stayed so long, is quite unusual. He spends time every day drawing, but only creates a little sketch. Much like Gauguin, Matisse needs an “incubation period” to digest the new scenery and all the new impressions to be able to paint. He ﬁlls several sketchbooks with drawings of trees, leaves, ﬂowers, fruits, landscapes, ships, birds, ﬁsh and women, mostly sketching Pauline Schyle… From his ﬁrst Sunday in Tahiti, he makes a habit of going to the newly constructed Papeete market with its cement and metal structure that has replaced the old wooden structure. He enjoys looking at everything, scrutinizing the smallest details, people-watching as the crowd— which he ﬁnds particularly magniﬁcent— comes to the market, and observing the new shapes and colors, smelling the new scents. He takes it all in, this new place, these new people. With the sweet scent of vanilla lingering in the air, he goes by the stands that burst with fresh vegetables, fruits and beautiful ﬂowers he has never seen before, and continues on to see fresh ﬁsh hanging in pairs, the biggest ones attached to sturdy bamboo logs, while dozens of the smaller ﬁsh hang together on a thread like colorful beads of a necklace. Pure colors and tones with incredible nuances that deeply fascinate him. He returns to the market several times to see it all again, each time leaving him touched and impressed. The lush and green nature all around him captivates him, particularly in the Catholic Mission’s gardens, where he goes every day. He discovers an entire new world that lives, grows, ripens and explodes in colors before him. He observes all the strange and uneven shapes that come together perfectly in a natural decoration so intense that he has a hard time putting words to his feelings. On March 30, he writes to his wife saying: “…extraordinary fruits, and on the breadfruit tree, each fruit is yellowish and light green while the leaves have a luminous and rich dark green color… It is almost too much to take inn.” Matisse’s ﬁrst meeting with Tahiti, and all the strong impressions of this land comes as quite a shock to him, and the experience will be felt through his works until the end of his life.

Sitting in front of his window on the third ﬂoor of the Hotel Stuart he draws the view, but makes little changes to it as he pleases, moving certain objects as he sees ﬁt— for example modifying the position of Moorea slightly,— creating his own imagery. In 1935, he recreates the painting in oil on canvas, and the result, better known as Fenêtre à Tahiti, or “Window on Tahiti,” still hangs in the Matisse Museum in Nice, France. Unhappy with the painting, he decides to make yet another reproduction the following year, and this one, which is a simpliﬁed version with ﬂat and pure colors— called Fenêtre à Tahiti II— can be seen at the Matisse Museum in Cateau- Cambrésis in France.

Beyond the end of the road In the evenings, he often goes to the movie theater, which he loves. He happily accepts an invitation from Murnau and Flaherty—two ﬁlmmakers— to spend time on Tahiti’s peninsula, the “Presqu’ile.” Murnau and Flaherty have just ﬁnished a year of shooting the ﬁlm “Tabu” on motu Tapu (motu is Tahitian and refers to a small coral island) in Bora Bora. The ﬁlm later goes on to become one of the last big silent movies. Far from civilization, beyond the end of the road, in Tautira, Matisse spends a week surrounded by wild vegetation and scenery, in complete symbiosis with nature, and following the rhythm of the sun. On the wild riverbanks, he stays in a hut, living a life reminiscent of Robinson Crusoe.

CULTURE

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