In the context of The French Collection, explore the Part I, #6: Matisse's Chapel (1991) of the Descriptions and locations.
Matisse's Chapel depicts a large group of Black elders, parents, and children sitting and standing inside the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence, a chapel elaborately decorated with artworks by Henri Matisse and often referred to as the Matisse Chapel. The group are all deceased members of Ringgold's real family, including her mother, known to the family as Momma Jones, and her great grandmother, Betsy Bingham. In the text, Willia Marie tells her Aunt that the scene is from a dream where her ancestors gathered in the chapel and spoke with her. In the dream, Betsy tells Willia Marie a story about meeting a white man who tried to shame her for being the descendant of enslaved people. Betsy rebuffed the man by asking him if he was ashamed of being the descendant of slavers. The man recounted a family story involving his grandparents, slavers from South Carolina, who had recoiled at the scent of bodies emanating from a slave ship in distress that they passed on a boat journey, only for their own boat to catch fire, forcing them to inhale the scent more deeply as they struggled to breath amid the smoke.As of 2022, Matisse's Chapel was in a private collection.
South Carolina Henri Matisse Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence