Warmth of my life

Seville Still Life #2 - Henri Matisse

Matisse painted this still life in 1910, inspired by his travels in southern Spain where the colours, warm air, flowering plants and sun drenched beauty of the landscape touched him deeply. I love Matisse’s paintings with their bold, happy colours, simple patterns and lines so adeptly drawn. His love of the ‘exotic’ and faraway places is also close to my heart. You may remember we saw a wonderful Matisse hanging in the collection at L’Orangerie when we were in Paris together. To make you smile, I told you of all the paintings there that this was the one I would like to bring home to hang in my living room if I could. I was reminded of it today when I came across a short but beautiful poem by Jacques Prévert, a favourite poet of yours and mine. It is titled ‘Alicante’, after the city in Spain, and I thought it the perfect complement to Matisse’s painting.

Alicante

Une orange sure la table

Ta robe sur le tapis

Et toi dans mon lit

Doux présent du présent

Fraîcheur de la nuit

Chaleur de ma vie

An orange upon the table

Your dress on the run

And you in my bed

Sweet present of the present

Freshness of the night

Warmth of my life

Prévert’s poetry always manages to capture deep human emotion with the simplest of words and this is what makes him great. Here he evokes a scene of love set somewhere in this Spanish city, which, apart from the title of the poem, is cleverly hinted at only by the mention of the orange in the first line. I love the way the narrator’s contentment is expressed so simply with so few words as he observes his lover in bed after a night of passion.

You know it is the simple things that I enjoy sharing with you and which make me most happy: the feeling of your hand in mine as we walk together, enjoying a delicious meal in a cozy restaurant, an afternoon at a museum somewhere spent in conversation, your warm embrace. Just like in Prevert’s poem, in a short few months, you have become the ‘warmth of my life’, my ‘present of present’, in my bed and in my head wherever I may be in the world.