Matisse Museum

If you're looking for important works by the artist, this is not necessarily the place. There are some interesting pieces, a lot of works on paper, and from time to time some very interesting exhibitions. However, in the city of Nice, there is not that much to really see in terms of art, which makes this a go-to destination for so many people. If you are driving you will have to find a place on the city streets, otherwise the buses will take you right to the doorstep almost.

What a magical experience! I didn’t think it possible to love Matisse more than I did before seeing this museum—but it’s true. ♥️ we were able to catch an exhibition of Matisse and Miro— what a wonderful friendship these two artists shared. Leaving this museum, I felt uplifted and cheerful – – that’s the effect of Matisse’s art.

A great history and documentation of the works of Henri Matisse and Joan Miro. The museum does an interesting comparison of these two contemporaries and great friends. The families have been gracious enough to share their works with the public. It is an extensive collection! 🤩

Some tight security when entering and you have to leave your bottle of water behind. Unfortunately the permanent exhibitions were in Tokyo so could not see them. But architecturally the building is quite beautiful

Beautiful museum! But the receptionists were super rude and obnoxious: we don’t speak French very well and asked to speak English, but they only replied in French, very fast! Moreover, they didn’t believe we were students even after showing them our student cards, so we had to pay anyways. How can a tourist attraction’s staff can’t speak the international language??? Unbelievable. The visit was really nice though! With a thorough exploration of Matisse’s history through his artworks

Well maintained museum and in a 17th century villa with a great collection

The Musée Matisse had an exhibition on Henri Matisse and Joan Miro, the information available was really comprehensive and told a good story of Matisse and his relationship with Miro. There was a lot of different artwork from different points in his career showing both his and Miro's work in different genres and using different mediums. The museum itself is accessed at the bottom of a flight of stairs, I noticed however the accessible entrance is up on the same level as the park, and around the opposite side of he building.

Wasted our money and time, the queue is massive and extremely slow, more than 100 people, to be checked by only one human working as a security guard. We bought the tickets online, there is no point, it is the same queue regardless of buying online or not, just that you will lose your money if you leave as we did to avoid a 3h wait.

Incredibly long wait for tickets - not sure why other than only one person selling them Smallish museum in a cool setting - an old villa set amidst 100+ year old olive trees and Roman ruins! Interesting exhibit comparing David Hockney's art to Matisse

Sort of small for Matisse. They had a Hockney exhibit which I could of cared less to see. Not a big Hockney fan. I find him a generic 60s Andy Warhol clone but minus pop culture. The building is nice in that it's air conditioned and laid out well. Staff was friendly. They have lockers to lock your bags and chairs to rest in. Overall worth the 10e for admission for the small amount of Matisse and air conditioning.

The museum has a beautiful, vibrant exterior perfect for photo ops, and inside there is a lot to behold. I am not the biggest Matisse fan, but being able to see his work up close and view his style evolve over such a short period of time was incredible. Additionally, when I visited (August 2022), there was a David Hockney exposition. I had never heard of Hockney before, but I actually liked his work even more than Matisse's. Hockney is also still alive, so it was cool to see some of his experiments and works using an iPad! My recommendation is to go early (opens @ 10h) and beat the crowds. You can be in an out in under an hour with a newfound appreciation for both Matisse and Hockney. Highly recommend! Happily, Clayton Cohn

Small, simple museum that's part of Nice's museum program - our ticket gave us free entry to a large number of museums in the city for 24 hours afterwards (unfortunately, we had a flight to catch the next day so couldn't take advantage of this). We saw the museum in 2 hours - it was a short, non-overwhelming daytime activity. There were nice sofas in the front atrium, and as a nursing mom, they were very useful as a pit stop for me and my baby! You can download a free app with an audio guide, which was nice! However, not every piece of art that has an audio description had an indicator icon next to it, so we missed a bunch of descriptions going through the museum. Each audio description was also very slow to load, and was listed alphabetically by artwork name, which didn't make it very easy to navigate (we had to scroll and look to see if something existed every time we went to a new piece of art). Still, it was free, so I can't complain too much. Overall an enjoyable museum!

Musee Matisse is very expensive with very little to offer the visitor. The floorplan is difficult to navigate. The staff is not helpful when one wants to find the Matisse works. If you are a regular museum goer, you have likely seen better examples of his works elsewhere. Save your money and energy for the Chagall museum.

Odds and ends of the Matisse collection are on exhibit here. The entrance to the museum is what appears to be a restored and converted mansion-hotel (more accurately the Hotel Regina) atop a hill overlooking Nice. The museum is deceptively spacious as it also features a large underground gallery. Admission is free to the public. Guided individual tours cost 5 Euros each.

Musée Matisse is average. Lacks but a small number of original Matisse art, poor signage and overall layout. If you are planning to visit other Nice municipal museums, then spend the 10 euros. Otherwise, it is not worth it. Much of Matisse's work is held by museums in the United States like the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

We spent $25 Euros to get there by taxi and discovered that the museum was closed. We had called ahead and went on the day it is supposed to be open. There was nothing in the recorded message saying they were closed. Such disdain for the public should not be rewarded with a visit. Very disappointed.

The great thing about this museum is it is high in the Cimiez in the beautiful Villa des Arène. The collection chronicals Matisse's work from the his beginnings to the end of his life. Many of the pieces were contributed by Matisse himself and by his heirs. For €1.50 you can ride the bus up to the museum or if you are willing, take a hike up the hill. If you can do, you can sit in the park across from the meseum while visiting the ruins of Cemenelum. You must also visit the Cimiez Monastery. Walk through the garden of the monestery and take in a spectacular view of port of Nice.

This museum is ok, however you will find better examples and there are no photos here. My advise is to move on, unless you really really must see any of his work.

* beware, the ticket office closes at 5:30p and they will not let you in + this tidbit isn't posted anywhere so they turned us away as rude as they possibly could ... the lady got so tired of listening to me plead to get in that she said "I don't speak English" (in perfect english) * if I could give it zero stars I would and not because of the artist and his works but because of their terrible customer service. extremely rude and had no compassion for our situation. we arrived at 5:35p and they wouldn't sell us a ticket even though the museum closes at 6p. *** we did talk with a couple locals that said this museum isn't worth it but we do love his art so had to make the effort regardless *** we also told them that we're leaving on a plane tomorrow but they wouldn't budge. all three of them just shook their heads and turned us away. very sad as we really wanted to go but it seems that little rules like that ticket office closing should be posted somewhere...frustrating

Not worth the trip! I was thoroughly disappointed with my visit to the Matisse museum. The admission is free, but unfortunately that was evident in its curation. The museum was not air conditioned properly and they seemed to be doing renovations in the basement while paintings and other artwork were out and exposed! The horror! My main disappointment was that their collection of Odalisques was at another museum at the time. That was my main reason for visiting the museum, and I'm assuming the museum's collection is much enhanced by them. Furthermore, there was a gigantic hike to get to the museum, a little much for a sunny leisurely day of culture.

Among museums of artists willing to spend the later part of their lives in southern French seaside towns, this is my among my favorites (also check out Musee Picasso in Antebe)! This is perhaps 20 minutes north of Nice and will cost you 20 Euros by cab, because Nice taxis apparently run on gold fuel or something. Otherwise, the museum was a great stop to take a break from sunburn.

I enjoyed viewing the collection of technical works. I would have liked to have seen more of his work though. It will only take an hour to go around the place at most. Easy access, lovely gardens and a fair price for entry

Quite a disappointment. Almost none of his best known works. Some drawings of his cathedral but very sparse museum. No place to check a bag so one of us had to wait outside! Nothing like Chagall museum which was Fantastique!

This museum seems to be mostly a collection of what they found in Matisse's house and workshop when he died. The second floor is not very interesting since it's mostly revolves around a church that Matisse built in Vence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapelle_du_Rosaire_de_Vence), which is easily visitable instead of the museum. The first floor has one room of sculptures and one room of other 2-D works that are worth consideration, but most of the art presented is sketches, drafts and preparatory work for greater pieces. Unless you are a big fan of Matisse, I would pass.