Sophie Haydock – Madame Matisse

Sophie Haydock is the curator of the Folkestone Book Festival which takes place every November.  She’s also an award-winning author.  Her debut novel The Flames focused on the women painted by Egon Schiele in Vienna at the turn of the 20th Century. Her second novel, Madame Matisse, is again about key women behind another famous artist, and released on March 6th 2025. Seated at a sunny spot in Folkestone Harbour, Sophie spoke to Folkelife about her work.

“I know exactly where I was, to the time and date, when I realised I needed to write a book about the women in Egon Schiele’s life.  A friend had taken me to an exhibition of Schiele’s work at the Courtauld Gallery.  I walked into that gallery knowing I wanted to write a book, and came out with the idea of telling the stories of those women Schiele had painted.  We knew very little about them, and yet they were so important to his work.  

“Madame Matisse has been more of a slow burn. It goes back to my degree where I spent a year in France as an English Language assistant.  I was teaching in primary schools in France, which is wonderful, but not what I was cut out for!  And I was glad to realise that this wasn’t want I wanted to do. All my friends had gone to Paris and I was in a very small town near Provence, at the base of the Alps.  I was so jealous!  I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, but this place, Manosque, was the birthplace of Jean Genet, the novelist and playwright.  It was there that I first started thinking about writing my own work.”

planting a seed

“There was a Cézanne museum in Aix-en-Provence, which was hugely inspiring. Through that I discovered Matisse, and it planted a seed.  Matisse was born in the north of France – a part of the country that was industrial, with barren wastelands and no trees.  The South, with its incredible light, sea and scenery, was so seductive to him.   

“When I got the book deal for The Flames they said they’d love for me to do two books, and were there any other artists I was interested in. I immediately thought of the tweed jacketed, bespectacled man Matisse. There’s more to him than meets the eye.  His wife is a fascinating woman, Amélie, who, after 40 years gave him an ultimatum which hasn’t really been written about before. It’s her, or me.  The young Russian assistant, Lydia Delectorskaya, who had originally been employed to look after Amélie had become very close to Henri.  This ultimatum was dismissed in the textbooks and biographies. Yet it had the impact of ripping apart their marriage; it was an explosive moment that had devastating consequences for everybody.”

shaping lives

“Both my books take a look at the lives of the people on the outskirts of the great stories of these fantastic artists of the 20th Century. The relationships these women had with each other, as well as with Henri, their drives, their passions, completely shape the life of Matisse, and change the art that he created as a result.  There’s no question that the work he created in the second half of his life would never have been possible without the breakdown of his marriage.

“I was just really interested in how this choice that he had to make between the loyalty to his wife or the promise of this younger woman, a relationship that was, ostensibly, platonic, but she offered him something that his wife couldn’t. She was fully dedicated to him and his art.  What a choice to have to make, it cost everybody very dearly. I was enticed to scratch beneath the surface. I think with any artist, there are great stories that you can discover.”

two book deal

“My agent sent The Flames out for submission and hadn’t thought about a second book.  I didn’t really know how it worked.  Then when a publisher said they wanted a second book I had to think of something quite fast.  I’d had this poster of Matisse on my wall.  It was a photograph of him in his studio taken by Cartier-Bresson, a beautiful black and white picture.  I was on the phone to my agent and looking around and saw this poster and thought – that’s the one! 

“Matisse, despite his rather studious appearance, favoured a bold and expressive use of colour that was radical at the time.  But during the Second World War, he steered his way away from politics – to Picasso’s disgust – and created these artworks that were seen as quite indulgent. He was criticised for saying, ‘I dream of an art that has a calming, soothing influence on the mind. Rather like a good armchair.'” 

“I spent a year researching Matisse’s life (he lived to 84) and he lived for so much longer than Egon Schiele who died age 28. In a way it was easy to write about Schiele, but with Matisse I had to take on so much information, and then throw a lot of it away in finding the heart of the story I wanted to tell.  All of these women gambled something, and I think the idea of gambling with your fate is really important.”

A PALETTE cleanser

“I have other books in me, but I think that a palette cleanser is needed next.  There’s an exciting adventure for me later this year as I’ll be taking part in an artist residency in the Arctic Circle.  The icy topography will be amazing and will inspire some short stories.  The light on that pristine landscape will be something to see on a boat going around the North Pole.  I’ll be off the grid too, no internet connection, which, for 2 weeks, is just a godsend for a writer. I can’t wait.”