The centrepiece of this new and special short tour to northern France will be a major temporary exhibition at the Pompidou Centre entitled Matisse: Odds and Evens, which will comprise some sixty paintings and thirty works on paper drawn from collections around the world, and focus on the seductive patterns and themes that run like a thread through Matisse’s long career.

Combined with this is a visit to the attractive town of Le Cateau-Cambrésis, where Matisse was born in 1869 and which is home to an important museum dedicated to his work in the handsome Palais Fénelon. Established by Matisse himself in 1952, it now owns the third largest collection of the artist’s work in France. As well as some 170 works by Matisse, it also houses a substantial collection of the work of Auguste Herbin, of artists’ books donated by the important avant-garde publisher Tériade and of photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson. At the local primary school, named after the artist, is a stained glass window entitled Les Abeilles (The Bees) that was originally created for his Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence.

In Paris, we spend ample time at the Pompidou Centre to enable us not just to enjoy the Matisse exhibition to the full but also to view its magnificent permanent collection of early 20th century art. A visit to the fascinating Musée Gustave Moreau will give us a vivid insight into the life and work of Matisse’s most important teacher; while another, to the Musée Rodin, will throw light on Matisse’s beginnings as a sculptor. A visit to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris will expand our knowledge of the work of Matisse’s contemporaries, as will the Musée de l’Orangerie where Monet’s famous Nymphéas (Waterlilies) are on display – like Matisse’s best work, it is triumphant proof of the need for beauty in an uncertain world.

Read itinerary