Henri Matisse was born as
the son of a grain merchant in the Picardy region of
northern France. He studied law and worked as a law
clerk. When Henri Matisse was 21 years old he became
seriously ill. During the phase of convalescence Matisse
started painting and discovered his love for art, which
should become his life-long passion.
Two years later, in 1892, he gave up his
career as a lawyer. He attended art classes at the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and dabbled in
different styles. He then was influenced by the
impressionist and post-impressionist painters Pisarro,
Cezanne, van Gogh, Gauguin and Paul Signac and by the
paintings of W. Turner.
Around the year 1905 he finally found
his own style characterized by daring, bright colors
executed in a broad brush stroke.
The Master of
Colors
After an exhibition of their works in
1905 at the Salon d'Automne the group around
Matisse and Andre Derain was ironically and pejoratively
dubbed Les Fauves, which literally means The
Wild Beasts.
From 1905 to 1906 Matisse painted one of
his best paintings, The Joy of Life. It is
considered to be one of the most important works of
Twenty Century art and was bought by the famous art
collector Dr. Albert C. Barnes. This painting and the
whole Barnes collection was veiled from the public for
72 years. Finally the collection of the
Barnes Foundation was opened to the art world again
in 1993 and can be visited outside Philadelphia.
The American writer Gertrude Stein and
her brother Leo were early collectors and supporters of
Matisse paintings. Another admirer became
Pablo Picasso with whom he exchanged paintings in
1907.
After World War I, Matisse had gained a
high reputation and was an internationally recognized
artist. In 1917 he left Paris and settled in Nice in the
South of France where he remained until the end of his
life. In 1925 he received the French Legion of Honor
award.
The Late Years
In 1941 Matisse had an abdominal cancer
surgery which had a devastating effect on his health and
ability to paint. He was unable to stand upright in
front of an easel. The artist therefore turned to
another form of artistic expression. He created paper
cut-outs in the same vivid, strong colors and daring
compositions known from his paintings. He had an
assistant and could work lying in bed or sitting
comfortably in an arm-chair.
Henri Matisse died on November 3, 1954
in Nice as an internationally well known and highly
reputable artist. He had continued creating paper cutout
works until the day of his death.
Pablo Picasso once said about the artist: "All
things considered, there is only Matisse".
Citations
"I have always tried to hide my efforts
and wished my works to have the light joyousness of
springtime, which never lets anyone suspect the labors
it has cost me."
"In modern art, it is undoubtedly to
Cezanne that I owe the most."
"A colorist makes his presence known
even in a single charcoal drawing."
"The essential thing is to spring forth,
to express the bolt of lightning one senses upon contact
with a thing. The function of the artist is not to
translate an observation but to express the shock of the
object on his nature; the shock, with the original
reaction."
Henri Matisse on the Internet
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