Resumen de Matisse's Second Visit to London and His Collaboration with the 'Ballets Russes'
At the beginning of September 1919 Serge Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky paid a visit to Matisse at his home in Issy- les-Moulineaux, outside Paris, that was to prove of critical importance, not only to the painter's employment during the succeeding three months but also to the direction subsequently taken by his work. The two Russians had come in order to propose to Matisse that he re-design the sets and costumes for Le Chant du Rossignol, a work that Diaghilev had already staged in 1914 in an operatic version by Igor Stravinsky with sets by Alexandre Benois. The idea was to present a new production at the Paris Opera, set to a purely orchestral score by Stravinsky and with choreography by Leonide Massine. The scale of the challenge to Matisse cannot be over- stressed: hitherto almost entirely an easel painter, he was now being offered his first large decorative commission. Its international context, its large budget and the Ballets Russes's close links with developments in contemporary art, all contributed to the significance of the project.
