Maison familiale d'Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse grew up here, in the Picardie region of France, where his parents had established a grain shop. At the time, Bohain-en-Vermandois was a rapidly-expanding manufacturing town on the Belgian border, and its principal product was textiles and luxury fabrics. Matisse attended the Lycée Henri Martin at nearby St Quentin, before travelling to Paris to study law, at his father's behest. However, after returning home in 1888, he had an attack of appendicitis, and it was during his extended convalescence in Bohain that his mother brought him paints with which to amuse himself - opening up what Matisse described as 'a kind of paradise'. In 1891, he set out for Paris again, this time to study painting at the Académie Julian.

Today, visitors to the shop can visit a permanent display exploring Matisse's boyhood and the history of the region, including the textile trade that became so evocative for Matisse's later works. A granary also provides an insight into the world Matisse left behind when he travelled to Paris in 1891.