I Sat on Henri Matisse’s Knee

A Tour of Tangier’s Celebrity Creatives

Follow this tour and stand where Henri Matisse did, see what he saw and painted.

Have a coffee where Mick Jagger slept.

Sit where Keith Richards smoked kief.

Dine in Yves St Laurent’s home.

And who was the naked painter?

These are just some of the celebrities drawn to Tangier over time. Follow their footsteps, check out their haunts. And discover Tangier’s celebrity history by stopping in at Interzone at the top of the old medina near the kasbah. See their unique collection of books, movies and curiosities of Tangier, chat, chill, or buy memorabilia you will find nowhere else.

Around their front door, local artist Punksy has painted portraits of some of the more memorable Tangier celebrities who lived in Tangier, both Moroccans, and the famous who retreated from a conservative Europe to the freer and more permissible society of the Tangier International Zone (1920s-1950s), including a full-size portrait of Henri Matisse in the exact spot where he painted Le Marabout.

Discover the haunts and eccentric lives that make up part of the Tangier history and magic. Follow in their footsteps. Stand where Henri Matisse did.

Gran Socco - the fountain on the left, archway into Rue d’Italie, and entrance to the ancient medina right of it, an entrance to the Souq Barra just right of the photo. I have my back to Cinema Rif.

Gran Socco – Start here, a perfect orientation for Tangier. The souq (market) and old medina (old town) are below the fountain. Above it is Cinema Rif, with the mosque to the right, the sea to your left. Stop here, sit facing the street and do as the Moroccans – watch the world go by over a mint tea or café au lait.

El Minzah Hotel – Follow the road on the left side of Cinema Rif up towards Gran Café du Paris at the next fountain. On the way, on your left, you will pass the El Minzah Hotel. Not only is it an excellent toilet stop, but its walls are covered in photos of the rich and famous who have passed through – not just actors, but the likes of Churchill and Yves St Laurent. Check out their bar for even more celebrity photos, and a drink if you wish.

• Kaid Maclean (Sir Harry Aubrey de Vere Maclean, 1848-1920) was a Scottish soldier who became a General of the Moroccan army! Large of build, he dressed in Moorish clothes and played the bagpipes, he not only must have looked intriguing, but notoriously got kidnapped. His portrait is in the El Minzah.

Grand Hotel Villa de France – Go back down the street you came up, but turn left at the kink/corner. At the end of this street is the Villa de France.

• Henri Matisse (1869-1954), French artist including impressionism, visited Tangier in the winter of 1912-1913. He stayed at this hotel, painting several paintings from the window of his room, including Landscape Viewed from a Window with St Andrew’s Church.

St Andrews Church and Graveyard – About turn, and you are facing St Andrew’s Church, built in 1905. Have you ever seen an Anglican church built with scalloped Moorish arches and a belltower shaped like a minaret? Also check out the cemetery for a few notables.

• Walter B. Harris (1866-1933) – Famously, he built Villa Harris in the 1890s. Journalist, writer and traveller, he was linguistically talented and physically ambiguous and travelled into many parts of Morocco inaccessible to foreigners, and wrote about them. After his death Villa Harris became a casino – the new one is across the road. It is now a museum and a great place for a picnic or weekend yoga. You can bus or taxi to Malabata for a visit, or a picnic.

• Emily Keene (1849-1944) – A writer, adventurer, and traveller who was a governess in Morocco. She married a powerful governor or Sharif and brought vaccines with her. She was a Moroccan of Anna and the King.

• Kaid Maclean – the Moorish-dressed, bagpipe-wielding, kidnapped-for-ransom Scottish commander of the Moroccan army.

The American Legation - entrance under the arched breezeway on your right, the Spanish Steps just ahead.

American Legation – Fun fact: Morocco was the first nation to acknowledge the newly independent USA in 1821. The sultan presented the building to the US. It functioned as a diplomatic post until Rabat was made the capital of Morocco at the end of the International Zone era (1923-1956). This, and other history is displayed in this house established in 1821 – almost more interesting for a peek at what may hide behind those endless high walls of the medina maze of streets. This old mansion crosses over the walkway, has a garden and balconies and beautiful Moroccan architecture, all designed for occidental purposes in an oriental Maghrebi world.

It was the first

The Spanish Steps, back through the wall into the medina and The American Legation.

Go back to Cinema Rif and the fountain (the mosque will guide you). Go past the fountain and down the street towards the sea. Take the first left after the fish markets (no description needed – you will smell them). That corner has the Jewish Cemetery – another interesting part of Moroccan history. As you start down the hill – also seawards – there are some steps on your left. Go up these steps (The Spanish Steps) into the medina. You will find the American Legation not far in.

A bit of Europe inside the medina - The American Legation

• Ion Perdicaris (1840-1925) and the Perdicaris Incident – This was a hot political football in 1940 when this important Greek-American author, playwright, painter, lawyer, professor, diplomat and human rights activist was kidnapped. He fought for the rights of slaves, Moors and Arabs in Morocco. Notably President Roosevelt intervened.

• Kaid Maclean – the Moorish-dressed, bagpipe-wielding, kidnapped-for-ransom Scottish commander of the Moroccan army has two of his paintings displayed in the Legation.

• Paul Bowles (1947-1999) – There is a special display of the musician and writer Paul Bowles, a key figure in Tangier. He was the first to record and preserve the Moroccan-Rif gnaua music, and the oral stories of Moroccan author M Mrabet.

Hotel Fuentes - This is where the artist painted naked. And painted the tables, and the ceiling of the upper floor in candle smoke.

Petit Socco and Fuentes Café – Make your way to Petit Socco in the middle of the medina, to Gran Café Central which has stood there since 1813. Beside is Café Tingis, after the old Roman name for Tangier, and one open during Ramadan, which also serves everyone at that time. As you sip your mint tea or coffee, muse at the wall opposite which was once notoriously the lineup of available prostitutes.

But opposite Central is Fuentes, a hotel and café, and also a long term feature of the square, with a little known history of being the home of the Toulouse-Lautrec of Tangier.

• Antonio Fuentes (1905-1995) – A prolific artist he lived on the top floor of Fuentes. As a child he was known to paint on the marble table tops, and later he painted the ceilings using candle smoke, and apparently his norm was to paint naked. Well, Tangier is warm in the summer. Between spaces in Europe, he lived here his whole life. A prolific artist, he painted - here - til the day before he died. He admitted himself to the Spanish Hospital in Tangier, and a day later he died.

• Camille Saint-Saens – composed Danza Macabre at Fuentes.

• Eugene Delacroix – the French artist in 1839, and Matisse (1912-1913) also painted here.

Tangier rooftops from Cafe Baba, with photos of some of its famous visitors over time around the walls.

Café Baba – Head off between Café Centrale and Café Tingis, and a short 5-minute walk will get you to Café Baba, a Tangier haven. With views of the bay through arched windows, 76 year old Café Baba has hosted kings, dukes, actors and others, including the Beat Generation, Paul Bowles, William Burroughs, Muhamed Mrabet, Muhamed Choukri, and the Rolling Stones – all of them to smoke kief and drink mint tea or Turkish coffee. You can do exactly the same, and guess which were their favourite seats. Ask the owner, and see what secrets he will reveal.

Barbara Hutton’s house

The first female there was in 1946, Barbara Hutton, American heiress and socialite whose house is almost at the bottom of the steps of Café Baba. Now of course you can find females in any of the cafes. There are no rules. Moroccan women just mostly socialise in different places.

Interzone, with portraits of the creatives who have passed through Tangier, and a life-size portrait of Matisse himself where he sat to paint the view.

Interzone – A treasure box of curiosities, a museum and a shop with memorabilia that you won’t find elsewhere in Tangier, or just chill. Ask about the history of Tangier, or buy a memento of a mug of William Burroughs, or a t-shirt of a movie poster such as the 1959 “Flight to Tangier”. You’ll find it near the kasbah at the top of the old medina about 5 minutes from Café Baba.

Around the front doorway, local artist Punksy has painted portraits of significant Tangier people, starting with Samir Duass on the right. But in the middle, you can’t miss a scale painting of Henri Matisse himself.

• Henri Matisse sat in front to paint Le Marabout. Stand where he stood. Sit where he sat. You can see for yourself the original of what he painted in Le Marabout. The scene hasn’t changed.

• Samir Duass – Also an artist, Samir Duass painted a painting of Matisse painting Le Marabout!

• Raisuli – A striking blackbearded Berber chief, Lord of the Rif mountains, Moor and Barbary pirate that excites the imagination, who kidnapped Ion Perdicaris and his stepson from their dining table in 1904 instigating the Perdicaris Incident, in reaction to Morocco’s anarchy.

Yes, I did ‘sit’ on Matisse’s knee. But he seems rather startled at my whispered secret…

Villa Mabrouka – Walk up from Interzone to the wall and turn right. Here you will have the magnificent view through the arched tunnel to the sea – the one that I used for the main page of OzzyHopper, and the one that Henri Matisse painted in Porte de la Casbah.

Find Matisse’s painting of this view. Can you spot where he set his easel?

Just beyond it is the kasbah square, with the kasbah museum and the café Salon Bleu with its amazing rooftop views. But turn left and exit through Bab Bhar, the Sea Gate. With Spain across the water, the Marina Bay to your right, and the best seafood in Tangier below, this is another of the amazing views from Tangier medina.

Bab Bhar (Sea Gate) from the inside.

For Villa Mabrouka, follow the path from Bab Bhar to your left, on the outside of the medina wall, first for the amazing views of the Mediterranean, then for a short walk through some medina streets, past a café with magnificent gardens and sea views, and shortly later to Villa Mabrouka.

• Yves St Laurent – Here you can dine, or have a coffee, in Yves St Laurent’s home, frequented by the rich and famous including Mick Jagger. If it’s in your budget, is a boutique hotel of the first order.

View from Cafe Hafa. Unfortunately on a day when Spain wasn’t there. (They sometimes tow it away for a spa and makeover)

Café Hafa – To finish for the day if Villa Mabrouka is outside your budget, there is always the iconic Café Hafa. A short street left of Mabrouka, then right will take you right up to the top of Tangier. You will pass the Phoenician graves on the cliffs – another magnificent view of the sea. The next street on your right will take you around to Café Hafa, frequented by… everyone. All of the Beat Generation went there, even Mick and Keith smoked kief there some 60 years ago.

Which table do you think was their favourite?

How many emerging artists have been there since?

Cafe Hafa, since 1921

But even if not, the views from Hafa are some of the best in Tangier. Especially over a tea and sunset.