Matthieu Cosse’s Instagram page is an online repository of his artworks, and it is fascinating to scroll through. The French painter and illustrator has the ability to give movement and personality to simple strokes; like dreamscapes in the minds of children brought to life, animal figures become fantastical through unusual proportions, the edges of sky and land blur in scenic watercolour depictions, and intuitive brushstrokes in oil contour light and shadow onto portraiture.
Cosse’s painterly worlds have been immortalised in a gamut of projects, such as ceramics for contemporary art gallery We Do Not Work Alone and illustrations for publications like AD Magazine, Profane and The Fence. Collaborators also include brands like French apothecary Diptyque, Poterie Ravel and architectural designer Pierre Yovanovitch, one of which is a mural spanning a vaulted ceiling in Villa Noailles – a mansion designed in 1923 by French architect Robert Mallet-Stevens.
But his work with Hermes is the most recognised across the world. For the French fashion maison, he has designed the Isola di Primavera scarf, and the Escale a la Plage bag and scarf. There is also the Tropiquet beach towel that conjures up a balmy tropical holiday with a coconut tree and tangerine sun against turquoise waters and a coral sunset.
Cosss’s latest project is not for sale, but in situ. He was in Singapore for a week in late April to create the latest window display for the Hermes store at Liat Towers, which will be up until August 2024. It is a cheerful mise en scene of larger-than-life chess pieces set loose from their chessboard, hovering in space, bursting through walls and perched upright gleaming at passers-by. Monochrome tones typically associated with the game are replaced by acid yellow and earthy green, as well as bits of salmon pink against a cobalt-and-baby blue chessboard floor.
