Henri Matisse

Biography weary of this teacher wanting him to copy mostly only Bouguereauʼs works, so the following year Matisse left to spend his time copying the works of art that the Ecole des Beaux Arts made available for students. It was there he was noticed by the artist Gustave Moreau, who invited Matisse to attend his classes and thus arranged for his acceptance into the school. Moreauʼs students spent hours copying the masters in the Louvre, but he also encouraged them to draw from real life and did not insist that his students adopt his style. As a result, he was much admired and respected by them; Matisse stayed with him until Moreauʼs death in 1898.

During the first ten years that he was a student and an aspiring artist, Matisseʼs father gave him a Henri Matisse was born on December 31, 1869 at modest allowance which he supplemented by Le Cateau-Cambresis, in the north of France. His painting and selling reproductions of famous father was a successful grain merchant who sent masters. In 1898, when he was 28 years old, young Henri to school in a nearby town to study Matisse married Amelie Parayre, with whom he Greek and Latin. When he was 18, the young man had a daughter four years earlier. She proved to was sent to Paris to study law. Two years later, he be a person of great kindness and possessed the returned home and worked as a clerk in a law necessary enthusiasm to encourage her husband office, copying legal documents. during difficult times. She also opened a millinery shop in 1900, following the birth of their third child, When he was 20 years old, Matisse became sick to help support the family when her father-in-law with appendicitis. During his convalescence, he finally withdrew his financial support. was confined to bed in the hospital and became friendly with his neighbor, a man who passed his In 1904, Matisse had his first one-man show at time painting “chromos,” an early and less the avant-garde gallery of Ambroise Vollard, a mechanical version of painting by numbers. Paris art dealer. In 1905, he exhibited at the Asking his mother for a box of paints, Matisse autumn salon in Paris with his friends André attempted his own painting and copied a Derain, Marurice de Vlaminck and Albert Marquet. reproduction of a river and a mill. He was pleased The style of their paintings caused a storm of with the result and signed it “Essitam,” his name in controversy. The realistic reflection of nature was reverse. The experience awakened in the young not their aim; color was the major element of their man a passion he had not felt for his previous paintings. They were exhibited in a hall in which studies, and he began to learn all he could about there was also a sculpture in the classical style of painting. Less than a year later, he left home Donatello. A critic is reported to have said, “ah, a against his fatherʼs wishes and abandoned his Donatello among the wild beasts.” They secure career in law to become an artist. As he immediately became known as the Fauves left for Paris to pursue this new direction in his life, (French for “wild beasts”). Matisse received the his father shouted at his departing train, “Youʼll brunt of the criticism, for the displayed portrait of starve!” his wife, “Woman with a Hat” The painting shows Madame Matisse posed as in a formal portrait, but Matisse was not accepted at the Ecole des Beaux bold patches of lurid color rendered her features Arts, the state-run art school, enrolling instead at and dress. It may have been scandalous to the the Academie Julien where he studied under the critics, but the notoriety saved Matisse from artist William Bouguereau, one of the most financial ruin. American expatriate Gertrude Stein conventional painters of the day. He soon became and her siblings Leo and Michael all bought works

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by Matisse and encouraged others to do the Matisse used images from the world around him same. Matisse was invited to join the intellectual and from his memories to create his cut-out and artistic group that gathered at the home of pictures. These simple works of art were the Gertrude and Leo and was thus introduced to perfect final form for an artist whose career was collectors who bought his works and helped to spent trying to simplify his art. Creative until the spread his fame throughout Europe and America. end, Matisse died at his home in Nice on He was also encouraged to take on students, and November 3rd, 1954. from 1907 to 1909 he took on some sixty students. He eventually closed his school, however, deciding he would rather be a painter than a professor. Bibliography

Matisse, who had become known as the “king of Henri Matisse, edited and produced by Ingo F. Walther, the Fauves” soon left Fauvism behind to explore © 1993 by Benedikt Taschen Verlag, Köln, Germany new worlds. He traveled to Italy, Morocco, Russia and the United States. He continued to Matisse, by Jean Selz, © 1990 by Crown Publishers, experiment with his paintings and was influenced Inc., New York by the arts and crafts he saw during his travels. The Islamic arts and oriental motifs he saw in Getting to Know the Worldʼs Greatest Artists: Henri northern Africa provided backgrounds for many of Matisse, by Mike Venezia, © 1997 by Mike Venezia and his paintings. In addition, Matisse was impressed published by Childrenʼs Press, New York by the light and colors he saw in the region, observing how flat everything looked in the overwhelming strong light. He felt free to let his paintings reflect that lack of perspective. The background became as important as the objects he painted and there was no regard for spacial depth.

Throughout his career, Matisse painted and interpreted what he saw around him. He painted still lifes and interiors (often with a view through an open window) and he painted women. While he often distorted reality, his work was still representational. He used his art to convey a sense of serenity as the world moved into the troubled times surrounding the two world wars.

In 1941, Matisse suffered from an intestinal illness that left him so weak he was virtually an invalid for the rest of his life. His ability to paint was limited, so his art took a new direction and he began to create collages and stencils of cut-out paper that had been painted with gouache (opaque watercolor paint) by his assistants. Matisse then arranged the shapes on a white paper background. Although the cut-outs looked simple, the arrangements were assembled with great care, creating compostions that were both playful and powerful.

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