Matisse in Morocco with Jeff Koehler

How Tangier transformed one of modern art’s greatest painters. Filmed on 1/27/2026 with a live audience both in person and on Zoom. James Beard Award–winning author Jeff Koehler discusses his book Matisse in Morocco: A Journey of Light and Color, the remarkable story of Henri Matisse’s winters in Tangier. Struggling to find critical and financial success in Paris, Matisse found inspiration in the city’s light, colors, and Islamic art, producing some of the most dazzling works of his career. This event offered a rare glimpse into the artist’s life, his relationships, and the cultural encounters that defined a pivotal moment in modern art. About the speakers: Jeff Koehler is a Barcelona-based American writer and author of eleven books. His titles have won a James Beard Award, named Editors’ Choice in the New York Times and paperback of the week in the Guardian, given a starred review in Kirkus, and included in “best of” roundups in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, National Geographic Traveller, NPR’s “Here and Now,” Science, Nature, CS Monitor, Smithsonian, Mother Jones, Entertainment Weekly, and Bustle. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, NPR.org, Wall Street Journal, Saveur, Times Literary Supplement, South China Morning Post, Vogue Arabia, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, and many other publications. Follow him on Instagram @jeff_koehler. Rachel Donadio, the Library’s Curator of Cultural Programs, is a Paris-based writer, journalist and critic, a contributing writer for the Atlantic, a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former European Culture Correspondent and Rome Bureau Chief of the New York Times. This event was part of Ways of Seeing, a special series exploring the connections between storytelling, creativity, and the visual world. Evenings with an Author is generously sponsored by GRoW @ Annenberg.