More than 60 works of art by Henri Matisse have been donated to the Museum of Modern Art in Paris Henri Matisse

The Museum of Modern Art in Paris has received an “extremely generous” donation of 61 Henri Matisse artworks held by the artist’s family.

Most of the donated artworks – which include paintings, drawings, engravings, lithographs and sculpture – depict the painter’s daughter Margaret.

The donation, which the museum described as exceptional and historic, was made by Barbara Dauphine Douthwaite, the wife of Matisse’s grandson, Claude, who died in 2011 in New York.

Many of the works were loaned to the MAM for the Matisse and Marguerite exhibition last year, but the museum said Douthwaite’s decision to let them keep them came as a complete surprise. In 2013, Douthwaite presented to the Center Pompidou Marguerite with a Black Cat, one of Matisse’s most famous portraits of his daughter.

Marguerite, Matisse’s favorite subject, was born during his relationship with one of his models, Caroline Joblau, while he was studying art in Paris. The artist recognized the child and brought Marguerite to live with his new family, including her half-brothers Jean and Pierre, when he married four years later.

At six years old, Margaret contracted diphtheria and underwent an emergency tracheotomy. For many years, she hid the scar with high-necked blouses or ribbons, photos show, until she underwent surgery to repair it when she was 26.

Although her health remained fragile, Marguerite joined the French Resistance during World War II, was tortured by the Gestapo, and was threatened with deportation to a Nazi concentration camp.

She began painting and included in group exhibitions during the war, but gave that up to devote herself to being her father’s assistant and agent until his death, aged 84, in November 1954. She was still cataloging her father’s works when she died in Paris in 1982, aged 87.

Matisse preferred to keep his art in the family rather than sell it, making the donation particularly significant. The 61 pieces will join the 20 Matisse artworks already held by the museum.

Fabrice Hergott, director of MAM, described Marguerite’s photographs as “extremely beautiful and moving.”

“This extremely generous gesture is testament to Madame Douthwaite’s deep commitment and confidence in the museum, which will effectively become Margaret’s new home for decades and centuries to come,” he said.