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10710 Henri Matisse (1869–1954) Fauvism was dominated by Henri Matisse, widely acknowl- edged as the greatest colourist of the 20th century and, also, Fauvism Fig. 1 Henri Matisse, Self Portrait, 1906; oil on canvas 54 x 46 cm/ 21.75 x 18 in; Royal Museum of Fine Art, Copenhagen. by Dr John W Nixon as probably second only to Picasso in overall artistic signif- icance. Over his lifetime he made major contributions not just in painting but in sculpture, printmaking, stained glass, and Related Study Notes Fauvism, the first of the major 20th century artistic the use of cut-out coloured paper. movements, flourished in France between about 1899 TRAINING and 1908 and, whilst still representational, featured For such a bold and innovative artist he was a surprisingly 10060 aggressive, expressive and decorative use of intense slow starter. In 1888–9 he was in hospital, recovering from From realism to colour. This much the Fauves largely shared with abstraction appendicitis, and to pass the time he followed the example of northern Expressionists in general, and Die Brücke and a fellow patient by copying colour prints, using a box of Der Blaue Reiter painters (active c. 1905–13) in particu- 10720 paints given as a present. It was this that sparked his interest Cubist painting in France lar. They differed in subject matter and general attitude, in painting. In 1890 he abandoned his job as a clerk in a the Fauves (being French), tending to look outward at 10740 solicitor’s office and enrolled as a pupil of the Academic the world and celebrate life’s pleasures: the Express- painter Adolphe-William Bougereau (1825–1905). Northern Expressionist ionists (being mainly German, Belgian or Scandinavian), painting 1880–1918 tending to look inward, seeking expression and meaning Fig. 2 Gustave Moreau, The Apparition (Dance of Salome), 1876; watercolour, 106 x 72 cm/ 41.75 x 28.4 in; Musée d’Orsay, Paris. 10844 for the inner, and often troubled, self. Fauvism was Matisse, middle and late dominated by Henri Matisse, other principals in the In 1892 he switched to the studio of Gustave Moreau painting loosely bound and short-lived movement being: Albert (1826–1898), at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, where Albert Marquet, Georges Rouault, Maurice de Vlaminck, André 10845 Marquet (1875–1947) and Georges Rouault (1871–1958) Derain and Georges Braque. The Fauves were belatedly Picasso, middle and late were among fellow students. Although he was a successful named by the critic Louis Vauxcelles when, entering an painting Academician, much of Moreau’s output is far from the exhibition room of their paintings at the Salon d’Autom- conventional Academic painting of his time. Not having to 30410 ne of 1905 and seeing a Renaissance-style sculpture in support himself financially through his art, he could afford to French Impressionist the middle of the same room, he declared: “Donatello au paint to please himself. Many of his paintings deal with painting milieu des fauves” (Donatello among the wild beasts). emotively charged, supernatural subject matter, as in The 30420 Fauvism has its roots in Impressionism. Impression- Apparition (Dance of Salome), 1876, and The Unicorns, c. French Post- ism’s small, discreet brushstrokes of pure colour are 1885. His use of texture, line and colour was as imaginative Impressionist painting given dispensation to enlarge and perform other as his choice of subject matter. Moreau himself once said: “If functions – aesthetic, emotional, expressive – as well as 30421 you have no imagination, you will never produce beautiful the representational. The Post-Impressionists – Paul Paul Cézanne colours… Colours must be thought, dreamed, imagined.” Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Georges Seurat – all in various ways also influenced Fauvism. Matisse remained a pupil of Moreau’s until 1896, two In the text, a Z symbol years before Moreau’s death. He set himself a traditional, refers to these Study Fauvist influences, an overview demanding course of study in which copying from casts and Notes Between 1901 and 1906 major exhibitions of the work of the old masters – mostly Poussin (1594–1665) and Chardin Cézanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh were held in Paris, a fact (1699–1779) – played prominent parts. His works in these art historians have frequently related to the development of years tend to be still lifes and landscapes in subdued colour Modernist painting in the first decade of the new century, ranges, reminiscent of the work of Chardin and Corot (1796- Cézanne’s influence being linked most directly to Cubism; 1875). Gauguin’s to Symbolism, the Nabis and Fauves; and van IMPRESSIONISM TO NEO-IMPRESSIONISM Gogh’s to Expressionism. Whilst the reality was more In 1896 he began to experiment with Impressionism. By complex than such one-to-one connections would suggest, 1899, the Post-Impressionists – Cézanne, Gauguin and van the connections are still worth making. In 1904, aside from Gogh – together with the Neo-Impressionists, Georges an exhibition of Gauguin’s work, there were also exhibitions Seurat and Paul Signac, had all exerted an influence in some of Mohammedan and French primitive art – the former way. In 1898, a time of particular financial hardship for greatly admired by Matisse. Matisse, he used his wife’s dowry to buy, from the art dealer Ambroise Vollard, Cézanne’s Three Bathers, 1879. He spent Expressionism and Fauvism much of 1898 in Corsica and the south of France, in and Expressionism and Fauvism, based mainly in Germany and around the then little known fishing village of Saint-Tropez. France respectively, have in common the use of bold, violent The Mediterranean light and colour had a profound effect on colours and distortions. In Expressionism, the emotions com- him. Colour began to emerge as his primary interest. municated tend in themselves to be violent, overstressed, Fig. 3 Henri Matisse, Luxe, Calme et Volupté (Luxury, Calm and angst-ridden. With Fauvism, they are altogether more Delight), 1904–5; oil on canvas, 94 x 117 cm/ 37 x 46.1 in; Private relaxed, reflecting life’s pleasures and joys rather than its collection, Paris. trials and tribulations. 1/3 10710u.doc: first published 2007 CCEA GCE HISTORY OF ART The title and theme of Matisse’s first major work, Luxe, the heavy foliage at the top of the picture, as well as in Calme et Volupté (Luxury, Calm and Delight), 1904–5, was the contours of the bodies, emphasized by heavy strokes. taken from Charles Baudelaire’s poem The Invitation to the For the first time, the actual drawing of the figures delib- Voyage. The ‘pointillist’ style – spots of pure colour being erately fails to respect anatomical accuracy, in order to fit placed adjacent to one another, the mixing occurring in the in better with the general organization of the picture; each viewer’s eye rather than on the palette or canvas – was figure reacts in relation to the others…1 taken from the Neo-Impressionists. The painting shows an Luxury, 1907, showing three female nudes by a body of idyllic, dream-like beach scene with seven women bathers. water with hills in the background, and the compositionally Lower left is a picnic set out on the ground. In the middle almost identical Luxury II, 1907–8, maintain this sense of distance is a moored sailing boat and on the right a large Arcadian escapism and also illustrate the direction in which pine tree. The work was exhibited at the 1905 Salon des the work is developing. In the first version the large sections Indépendants and bought by the Neo-Impressionist Paul of colour are delicately modulated; in the second, the colour Signac. Signac had worked with Matisse in Saint-Tropez and is applied flatly with little evidence of brushmarks or tonal had encouraged him to adopt the pointillist technique. With variations. Signac, and even more so with Matisse, the technique was Fig. 5 Henri Matisse Luxury, 1907; oil on canvas, 210 x 138 cm; looser and more intuitive than had been the case with Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris. Seurat. With Matisse, the ‘spots’ of colour are larger, freer and tend to follow the direction of the form being described. Among other important works produced in this style are: The richly luminous colour harmonies achieved here recur Dance, 1910; Music, 1910 (both commissioned by throughout his work but the pointillist approach is quickly Shchukin); The Red Studio, 1911; and The Moroccans, abandoned as “too mechanical and jerky.” 1916. RADICALLY NEW Fig. 6 Henri Matisse Music, 1910; oil on canvas, 260 x 389 cm/ 102 x Among the first works to show a radically new boldness in 153 in; State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. paint handling and use of colour are Woman in a Hat, Madame Matisse, 1904–05; Open Window, Collioure, 1905; Fig. 7 Henri Matisse Dance, 1910; oil on canvas, 260 x 391 cm/ 102 and Madame Matisse: the Green Line, 1905. x 154 in; State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. Woman in a Hat, Madame Matisse was bought by Leo and Gertrude Stein, the wealthy American brother and sister Matisse visited Morocco in 1911 and 1913. The influence then living in Paris. The Steins were influential figures in of Islamic decoration can be seen in the patterning in many Parisian literary and artistic society and Gertrude herself was of his works, such as Moorish Screen, 1922, and Decorative an avant garde writer of some renown. Leo became an Figure on an Ornamental Background, 1927. important and longstanding patron of Matisse’s work; Fig. 8 Henri Matisse Dinner Table, Red Version, 1908; oil on canvas, Gertrude favoured Picasso. Another notable collector of 181 x 220 cm/ 71.25 x 86.6 in; State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad.

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