1953-1964 A return to the native land

On January 20, 1953, Yves and Kay embarked for Europe, for exhibitions organized in Naples, Milan, and Paris. He saw his old friends Marcel Jean and Jehan Mayoux, presented his wife Kay to his sister Emilie in Locronan, and rediscovered the maritime landscapes of his childhood. His Parisian exhibition was a failure, but upon his return to America, the Wadsworth Atheneum of Harford presented his works as well as those of Kay and consecration came to him with the purchase of Multiplication des Arcs by by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. At this point, all of the foundations of his previous work collapsed into a strange heap of stones.

On the night of January 15, 1955, he suddenly died of a brain hemmorage. There were absolutely no indications of poor health, in spite of his taste for alcohol.

In dispair, on January 8, 1963, Kay Sage commited suicide having just completed the Catalog Raisoné of the painted works of her husband. According to their wishes, in 1964, Pierre Matisse scattered their ashes in Douarnenez's Bay. This sharply ironic rebel, who appeared to have few earthly ties, wanted to rest Within the Sands, In the Heart of the Water of his native Brittany.*

* Title of one of Jacques Prévert's poem - first verse: " He is a Breton who returns to the native country ", Words, Gallimard, Library of the Pléiade, p. 45