|Poem| The Look in the Eye

 

The Look in the Eye

-- To Lydia in “Portrait of Lydia Delectorskaya” painted by Matisse (1947)

 

Somehow smiling eyes

Yellow and blue taking up half and half of the colors

About the half of it is really easy to put into words

 

In orange background tensed up surrounded by green

The dark shadows that wobble are so warm

 

Note on the Muse:

Lydia Delectorskaya, who escapes Russia all by herself in 1932. At the age of 22, she is hired as a helper for Matisse’s Studio. She runs his studio and gallery for more than 20 years by his side until 1954, when Matisse dies at 84, after undergoing surgery for small intestine cancer in 1941. The age gap between them is 40 years. Matisse's wife leaves the family in 1939.

Lydia, the daughter of a Siberian pediatrician, attends the Sorbonne Medical School in Paris and drops out because she cannot pay for her tuition. Lydia becomes Matisse's Muse and appears countless times in his paintings. Living alone, she publishes two books on Matisse in 1988 and 1996, and dies by suicide in 1998 at age 87. She writes in her will, "Please put Henri Matisse's shirt next to me."

 

 

© Ryang Suh, MD 12.02.2023