The Ragghianti Foundation's 2025 program concludes with a special event dedicated to Henri Matisse. The event will feature scholar Gloria Fossi, who will deliver a unique lecture on the great French artist of "joie de vivre" on Tuesday, December 16th at 6:00 PM in the "Vincenzo Da Massa Carrara" conference room, located at Via San Micheletto 3, Lucca.

The lecture, titled "It was December 16, 1917, and Matisse...", will be introduced by President Alberto Fontana and Director Paolo Bolpagni.

Admission is free, subject to availability. At the conclusion of the event, all participants will be offered a toast to the New Year's Eve festivities.

Gloria Fossi, who recently published "In the Footsteps of Matisse: The Joy of Living, the Poetry of Color" with Giunti, Florence, in her lecture at the Ragghianti Foundation, will focus specifically on a decisive decade in the artist's career, universally celebrated as a champion of the serenity and pleasure conveyed by his paintings.

Matisse's figurative world was nourished by numerous sojourns in lands near and far, and is a constant source of reflection and aesthetic admiration. Despite its apparent "ease," however, he was not immune to the world's tragedies. Gloria Fossi's story will begin with the journey the artist undertook in December 1917, at the height of the First World War, from Paris to visit his eldest son, Jean, who was then stationed at the military training camp in Istres, near Marseille. From there, a succession of encounters and experiences would shape the course of the painter's life and work.