Henri Matisse (31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954)
Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and
his fluid, brilliant and original draughtsmanship. He was a
master draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but excelled
primarily as a painter. Matisse is regarded, with Picasso, as
the greatest artist of the 20th century. Although he was
initially labeled as a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s, he
was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical
tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive
language of colour and drawing is displayed in a body of
work spanning over a half-century which won him
recognition as a leading figure in modern art.
As a young man, he went to Paris to study law, graduated,
and in 1889 returned home to work as a clerk in a law office. In 1892, he gave up his career as
a lawyer. He went on to attend art classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in Gustave
Moreau's studio and it was here he dabbled in different styles. His first teachers were
academically trained and relatively conservative therefore Matisse's own early style was a
conventional form of naturalism, and he made many copies of the old masters. Matisse was
also influenced by more contemporary art such as the impressionist and post-impressionist
painters Pisarro, Cezanne, van Gogh, Gauguin and Paul Signac and by the paintings of W.
Turner.
More specifically Matisse's true artistic freedom, in terms of the use of colour to paint forms
and organize spatial planes, came through the influence of the French painters Paul Gauguin
and Paul Cézanne and the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, whose work he studied closely
beginning about 1899.
About 1898, under the influence of impressionism (an art form using dabs of paint in primary
colours to create an image representing a brief glance rather than a long study), the colours
Matisse used became lighter, as in his seascapes of Belle-Île and landscapes of Corsica and
the Côte d'Azur (coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea). Although impressionist in
character, these early works of Matisse already showed a noticeable emphasis on colour and
simplified forms. Matisse married in 1898 and visited London, England. On his return to Paris
he attended classes at the Académie Carrière, where he met André Derain (1880–1954).
In 1903 and 1904, Matisse encountered the pointillist
painting of Henri Edmond Cross and Paul Signac. Cross
and Signac were experimenting with juxtaposing small
strokes (often dots or "points") of pure pigment to create the
strongest visual vibration of intense colour. Matisse
adopted their technique and modified it repeatedly, using
broader strokes.
It was around the year 1905 that Matisse finally found his
own style characterized by daring, bright colours executed
in broad brush strokes. It was at this time that he produced
some of the boldest colour images ever created, including a
striking picture of his wife, Green Stripe (Madame Matisse)
(1905, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen). The title refers to a broad stroke of brilliant
green that defines Madame Matisse's brow and nose.
After an exhibition of their works in 1905 at the Salon d'Automne the group around Matisse
and Andre Derain were dubbed Les Fauves, which literally means The Wild Beasts. They
were given this title because of the extremes of emotion which they used, their use of vivid
colour and their distortion of shapes. Matisse's Fauve period extended from 1905 to 1908,
during which time he completed a brilliant series of masterpieces. In 1906 Matisse's Joie de
vivre was exhibited at the Indépendants; the painting gained him the title of the "King of the
Fauves."
Although intellectually sophisticated, Matisse always emphasized the importance of instinct
and intuition in the production of a work of art. He argued that an artist did not have complete
control over colour and form; instead, colours, shapes, and lines would come to dictate to the
sensitive artist how they might be employed in relation to one another.
Matisse also loved pattern, and pattern within pattern: not only decorative forms of his own
compositions but also the reproduction of tapestries, embroideries, silks, striped awnings,
mottles, dots, and spots, the bright clutter of over-furnished rooms, within the painting.
Between 1908 and 1913 Matisse made journeys to Spain, Germany, Russia, and Africa. In
Munich, Germany, he saw an exhibition of Islamic art (1910), and in Moscow, Russia, he
studied Russian icons (1911). Russian collectors began to buy his paintings. He produced five
sculptures—heads of Jeannette—during 1910 and 1911, which show a resemblance to
African masks and sculptures. His Moroccan journey of 1911–12 had a positive influence on
his development, which is seen in Dance, Music, the Red Fishes, and the series of interiors
recording his studio and its contents. They show a stern and compact style with blacks and
grays, mauves, greens, and ocher’s (brown tones).
In particular he loved Islamic art, and saw a big
show of it in Munich on his way back from
Moscow in 1910. One of the results of a fusion
of Islamic art with pattern is the painting The
Red Studio, 1911.
By 1919 Matisse had become an internationally
known master. His style at that time was
characterized by the use of pure colors and their
complex interplay (harmonies and contrasts); the
two-dimensionality of the picture surface
enriched by decorative patterns taken from
wallpapers, Oriental carpets, and fabrics; the human figures being treated in the same manner
as the decorative elements. The goal of Matisse's art was the portrayal of the joyful living in
contrast to the stresses of our technological age.
From the 1920s until his death, Matisse spent much time in the south of France, particularly
Nice, painting local scenes with a thin, fluid application of bright colour.
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 colours 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 and unlike many artists, he was
internationally popular during his lifetime, enjoying the favour of collectors, art critics, and
the younger generation of artists. He had continued creating paper cut-out works until the day
of his death. Pablo Picasso once said about the artist:
"All things considered, there is only Matisse".
Matisse's work reflects a number of influences: the decorative quality of Near Eastern art, the
stylized forms of the masks and sculpture of Africa, the bright colours of the French
impressionists, and the simplified forms of French artist Paul Cezanne and the cubists.
Quotes by Matisse
"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 labours it has cost me."
"In modern art, it is undoubtedly to Cezanne that I owe the most."
"A colourist 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."