Morrice and Lyman in the Company of Matisse

Essays by Lucie DORAIS, Richard FOISY, François-Marc GAGNON, Marc GAUTHIER, Michèle GRANDBOIS & John O’BRIAN The artists James Wilson Morrice and John Lyman, both from Montreal, were pioneers of modern art in Canada. Their quest for free and authentic expression led them to Paris, the heart of the bubbling avant-garde that would so influence twentieth-century art. There they rubbed shoulders with the famous painter Henri Matisse and in 1910 Lyman became a pupil of the master at the Matisse Academy. Some years later, in Tangier, Morocco, Morrice and Matisse would become firm friends and colleagues in art. This book juxtaposes works by these three highly individual artists, revealing their affinities and similarities. Inveterate travellers, entranced by the exquisite colours of North Africa and the endless summer of the Caribbean, Morrice and Lyman succeeded in capturing the same warmth and texture of light that so fascinated Matisse. This book marks the exhibit “Morrice and Lyman in the Company of Matisse” mounted at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, which examined the seminal dialogue between James Wilson Morrice (1865–1924) and John Lyman (1886–1967) with Henri Matisse (1869–1954). Dr Michèle Grandbois, Curator of Modern Art at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, has brought together the intersecting research of six specialists. Their essays are complemented by a chronology tracing the movements of the three artists and by four richly illustrated portfolios that take us from Europe to North Africa and from Quebec to the West Indies. Published by Firefly Books, in collaboration with the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.