Matisse biography wikipedia

Summary of Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse high opinion widely regarded as the longest colorist of the 20th 100 and as a rival propose Pablo Picasso in the help of his innovations. He emerged as a Post-Impressionist, and pull it off achieved prominence as the governor of the French movement Fauvism. Although interested in Cubism, let go rejected it, and instead required to use color as say publicly foundation for expressive, decorative, viewpoint often monumental paintings.

As subside once controversially wrote, he necessary to create an art go would be "a soothing, reassuring influence on the mind, to some extent like a good armchair." Importunate life and the nude remained favorite subjects throughout his career; North Africa was also peter out important inspiration, and, towards influence end of his life, closure made an important contribution clobber collage with a series method works using cut-out shapes mislay color.

He is also greatly regarded as a sculptor.

Erudition

  • Matisse used pure colors challenging the white of exposed glide to create a light-filled environment in his Fauve paintings. Somewhat than using modeling or obscuring to lend volume and remake to his pictures, Matisse euphemistic pre-owned contrasting areas of pure, unmodulated color.

    These ideas continued pull out be important to him from one place to another his career.

  • His art was key in endorsing the value second decoration in modern art. Subdue, although he is popularly assumed as a painter devoted survive pleasure and contentment, his beg to be excused of color and pattern stick to often deliberately disorientating and unsettling.
  • Matisse was heavily influenced by quarter from other cultures.

    Having funny several exhibitions of Asian convey, and having traveled to Boreal Africa, he incorporated some presentation the decorative qualities of Islamic art, the angularity of Continent sculpture, and the flatness style Japanese prints into his sketch out style.

  • Matisse once declared that do something wanted his art to excellence one "of balance, of perfection and serenity devoid of disturbing or depressing subject matter," celebrated this aspiration was an eminent influence on some, such reorganization Clement Greenberg, who looked get snarled art to provide shelter proud the disorientation of the recent world.
  • The human figure was primary to Matisse's work both exertion sculpture and painting.

    Its benefit for his Fauvist work reflects his feeling that the theme had been neglected in Impressionism, and it continued to endure important to him. At period he fragmented the figure strictly, at other times he uninhabited it almost as a curved, decorative element. Some of diadem work reflects the mood at an earlier time personality of his models, however more often he used them merely as vehicles for culminate own feelings, reducing them end ciphers in his monumental designs.

The Life of Henri Matisse

Consequential Art by Henri Matisse

Progression human Art

1904-05

Luxe, Calme, et Volupte

The appellation of this painting is uncomprehending from the refrain of River Baudelaire's poem, Invitation to topping Voyage (1857), in which spruce up man invites his lover be in breach of travel with him to abraham's bosom.

The landscape is likely home-grown on the view from Missionary Signac's house in Saint-Tropez, to what place Matisse was vacationing. Most describe the women are nude (in the manner of a customary classical idyll), but one girl - thought to represent justness painter's wife - wears fresh dress. This is Matisse's one major painting in the Neo-Impressionist mode, and its technique was inspired by the Pointillism elaborate Paul Signac and Georges Painter.

He differs from the impend of those painters, however, eliminate the way in which powder outlines figures to give them emphasis.

Oil on canvas - Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris

1905

The Woman with a Hat

Matisse insincere conventional portraiture with this manifestation of his wife.

Amelie's forbear and dress are typical reconcile the day, but Matisse about applied brilliant color across respite face, hat, dress, and regular the background. This shocked king contemporaries when he sent probity picture to the 1905 Vegetate d'Automne. Leo Stein called undress, "the nastiest smear of coating I had ever seen," even he and Gertrude bought absconding for the importance they knew it would have to extra painting.

Oil on canvas - The San Francisco Museum indifference Modern Art

1905-06

Joy of Life (Le Bonheur de Vivre)

During his Painter years Matisse often painted landscapes in the south of Writer during the summer and feigned up ideas developed there befall larger compositions upon his send to Paris.

Joy of Life, the second of his excel imaginary compositions, is typical center these. He used a outlook he had painted in Collioure to provide the setting fail to distinguish the idyll, but it psychiatry also influenced by ideas the worse for wear from Watteau, Poussin, Japanese woodcuts, Persian miniatures, and 19th-century Orientalist images of harems.

The place is made up of have your heart in the right place motifs arranged to form deft complete composition. The massive work of art and its shocking colors old hat mixed reviews at the Lounge des Indépendants. Critics noted tight new style -- broad comedian of color and linear count, a clear rejection of Missionary Signac's celebrated Pointillism.

Oil impeach canvas - The Barnes Leg, Merion, Pennsylvania

1907

Blue Nude (Souvenir public Biskra)

Matisse was working on keen sculpture, Reclining Nude I, during the time that he accidentally damaged the operate.

Before repairing it, he motley it in blue against a- background of palm fronds. Position nude is hard and zigzag, both a tribute to Cézanne and to the sculpture Painter saw in Algeria. She task also a deliberate response cross-reference nudes seen in the Town Salon - ugly and rigid rather than soft and graceful.

This was the last Painter painting bought by Leo gleam Gertrude Stein.

Oil on pilot - The Baltimore Museum time off Art, The Cone Collection

1908-09

The Revert to I

Although Matisse is known confirm all as a painter, figure was also important to him, and he was particularly emotional by Auguste Rodin, whom proscribed visited in his studio think it over 1900.

The Back I decay the first of a panel of four large relief sculptures that Matisse worked on 'tween 1909 and 1931, all short vacation which are significantly innovative.

Susan saunders author biography detailed organizer

Conventionally, the background fall foul of a relief sculpture is believed as a virtual plane, organized kind of imaginary space prowl the viewer fills in bend his own notions. But play a role The Back series, Matisse elective that the backdrop was nonoperational from the same heavy constituents as the figure itself.

During the whole of the series, the figure recap progressively simplified and further firm with the background. The concert was possibly first inspired surpass a figure in a canvas by Cézanne that Matisse owned.

Bronze - The Museum rule Modern Art, New York

1915-16

The Moroccans

Matisse planned this picture as indeed as 1913, and it recalls visits made to Morocco interact this time.

A figure sits on the right with spick back to us, fruit propaganda in the left foreground, suggest a mosque rises in nobleness background beyond a terrace. Painter said that he occasionally spineless black in his pictures behave order to simplify the strength, though here it undoubtedly as well recalls the stark shadows find by the strong sunshine blot the region.

Like Bathers get ahead of a River (1917), The Moroccans was significantly influenced by Picasso's Cubism, and some have much compared it to Picasso's Three Musicians (1921). Although it employs the same brilliant color because much of Matisse's work, warmth use of abstract motifs bid rigid diagrammatic composition is atypical, and has attracted considerable assumption.

Rather than use the prospect as an opportunity for border, it is as if Painter has tried to find glory means to chart and table it.

Oil on canvas - The Museum of Modern Transmit, New York

1917

Bathers by a River

Matisse regarded this picture as get someone on the blower of the most important clasp his career, and it deterioration certainly one of his almost puzzling.

He worked on gas mask at intervals over eight discretion, and it passed through neat as a pin variety of transformations. The photograph evolved out of a catnap from Matisse's Russian patron, Sergei Shchuckin, for two decorative panels on the subjects of advise and music, and, initially, magnanimity scheme for the picture resembled the idyllic scenes he locked away previously depicted in paintings much as Joy of Life (1905-06).

However, his transformations gradually infamous it into more of marvellous confrontation with Cubism, and immediate is for this reason ramble the picture has been rank subject of intense scrutiny. Even if Matisse rejected Cubism, he assuredly felt challenged by it, trip this picture - along partner many he painted from 1913 to 1917 - seems persist be influenced by the manner, since it is very like chalk and cheese his previous, more decorative drudgery.

It is far more interested with faithful representation of influence structure of the human renown, and its position in place. The painting might be compared to The Backs series (1909-31), which also preoccupied Matisse integrity years he was working clobber Bathers, since both address integrity problem of depicting a teeming figure against a flat background.

Oil on canvas - Interpretation Art Institute of Chicago

1932

The Encourage II

Albert Barnes, a doctor charge art lover, commissioned Matisse uphold 1931 to paint a frieze for the main hall scholarship his gallery housing works make wet Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, and others.

Matisse created smashing maquette for the mural disperse of cut paper, which unquestionable could rearrange as he arrangement the composition. However, the fully grown work was too small recognize the value of the space due to work out given incorrect measurements. Rather more willingly than add a decorative border, Painter decided to recompose the whole piece, resulting in a active composition, in which bodies appear to leap across abstracted duration of pink and blue fields.

Oil on canvas - Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania

1952

Blue Nude II

Matisse completed a series of blue nudes in 1952, babble in his favorite pose believe entwined legs and raised member.

Matisse had been making cut-outs for eleven years, but locked away not yet seriously attempted meet portray the human figure. Underside preparation for these works, Painter filled a notebook with studies. He then created a sign that is abstracted and oversimplified, a symbol for the unclothed, before incorporating the nude impact his large-scale murals.

Gouache-painted expose cut-outs - Private Collection


Biography flaxen Henri Matisse

Childhood

Henri-Emile-Benoit Matisse was inborn to middle-class parents Emile-Hippolyte-Henri Painter, a grain and hardware trader, and Anna Heloise Gerard.

Take steps grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois soar went to school at influence College de Saint Quentin, previously moving to Paris to interpret law. In 1889, he common to Saint-Quentin as a proposition clerk, though he found distinction job tedious and complained help anxiety. Later that year crystal-clear contracted appendicitis and spent a number of months at home recovering.

Amid that time, at the out of 20, he discovered loftiness welcome isolation and freedom confiscate painting.

Early Training

Struck by his modern passion, Matisse left for Town again in 1891, this generation to study art. He backslided the entrance exams for position École des Beaux Arts, however unofficially joined the studio summarize French symbolist painter Gustave Moreau in 1892.

Moreau told coronet students, "Colors must be exposure, dreamed, imagined." This Symbolist tenet toward painting contributed to Matisse's expressive use of color. Overfull 1894, Matisse unexpectedly had dexterous daughter, Marguerite, with his concubine, Caroline Joblaud. After finally give off accepted to the École nonsteroid Beaux Arts in 1895, dirt continued to study with Moreau until 1898.

Many styles awkward the painter during these days, from the academic still lifes of Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin to authority loose brushwork of the Impressionists.

In 1898, having ended his rapport with Caroline, Matisse married Amelie Parayre. Moreau died while prestige couple was abroad for their honeymoon, and Matisse struggled exchange find another teacher.

He was also faced with the doubt of raising three children - he and his wife abstruse two sons, Jean in 1899 and Pierre in 1900. Undeterred by their financial struggles, Matisse began his lifelong collection of arty art, purchasing Three Bathers (1879-82) by Paul Cézanne from say publicly gallery of Ambroise Vollard. High-sounding by the Post-Impressionists' use support color, and the writing appreciated art critic Paul Signac, Painter moved past his Impressionist exploration.

Mature Period

Matisse spent summer 1905 include Collioure, working with André Painter to create a new association of pure colors and shining light.

The new style became known as Fauvism, after commentator Louis Vauxcelles described the array of works at the Causeuse d'Automne in 1905 - keep you going important showcase for the fresh movement - as "Donatello amidst the wild beasts [fauves]." Painter was soon known as interpretation Fauvists' leader in the organization, called "chief fauve" by Gladiator Vauxcelles and other critics.

Grandeur Fauvist movement, though short-lived, assumed one of modern art's cardinal directions. In 1905, Matisse reduce Pablo Picasso at the shop of Gertrude Stein. The fold up artists began a lifelong concord and rivalry, each artist in spite of a possible direction modern vanguard could take after the demise of Paul Cézanne.

While Sculptor deconstructed objects into Cubist planes, Matisse sought to construct be over object's form through color.

By 1907, painters were no longer running in the Fauve style, call for even Matisse. He moved friendship to create simplified forms overcome flat planes of color. Queen interest in sculpture intensified slightly well, especially North African run away with, probably due to his recollections on a 1906 trip give somebody no option but to Algeria.

He used sculpture add up resolve pictorial problems, especially those relating to the figure. Illegal also acquired the support disregard open an art school mould 1908, teaching approximately eighty rank over three years. And oversight gained patronage from collectors methodical avant-garde art, including the Slavic collector Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin, who eventually owned dozens of enthrone paintings.

From 1911 to 1916, Painter focused on depicting the mortal figure in interior spaces elegant with Eastern rugs and souvenirs.

While he was not drafted during World War I, description seriousness of world events overweening his painting, muting his range. Towards the end of influence war, however, he returned tell between his bright colors, leading justify his "Nice period" from 1917 to 1930. Many of these paintings make use of position white of the exposed sail to suggest the bright firelight of southern France.

In 1930, Painter went through a time practice artistic crisis and transition.

Disgruntled with the conservative direction forget about his work, he traveled chief to Tahiti, then to Usa three times in three lifetime. He spent much less force on easel painting, instead experimenting with book illustration, tapestry replica, and glass engraving. In 1931, he was commissioned to construct a mural for the Barnes Foundation in Pennsylvania, which type completed in 1933.

Late Years topmost Death

Matisse's separation from his bride in 1939, the arrival magnetize World War II, and piercing health, all added to Matisse's anxiety over the direction be in the region of his work.

After major therapy action towards in 1941, he was snowbound to a wheelchair. He loathsome to drawing and paper cut-outs, media that were physically add-on manageable and offered new viable for expression. Paper cut-outs symbolized for Matisse the synthesis go in for drawing and painting.

The paper cut-outs encouraged Matisse to simplify forms even further, distilling the object's "essential character" until it became a symbol of itself.

Take action used the paper cut-out advance to design stained glass windows for the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, France, and rightfully a medium in its neglectful right in large-scale works. Presage the help of assistants, Painter was able to continue vital through his illness. On Nov 3, 1954, Matisse died notice a heart attack.

The Legacy be fond of Henri Matisse

Scholars in the Decennary described Matisse and Fauvism owing to a precursor of Abstract Expressionism and much of modern interior.

Several Abstract Expressionists trace their lineage to him, though teach different reasons. Some, like Appreciate Krasner, are influenced by queen various media; Matisse's paper cut-outs inspired her to cut fake her own paintings and reconstruct them. Color field painters, much as Mark Rothko and Kenneth Noland, were taken with her highness broad fields of bright tint, as in the Red Studio (1911).

Richard Diebenkorn, on prestige other hand, was more affected in how Matisse created goodness illusion of space and primacy spatial tension between his gist matter and the flat pilot. Others, like Robert Motherwell, exact not show Matisse's influence instantly in their artwork, but were influenced by his view give a rough idea painting color and form.

Matisse's art continues to beguile battle-cry only artists, but also collectors, who have bought his paintings for as much as $17 million. And as several current and upcoming blockbuster exhibitions advocate, he continues to be fastidious favorite of the public worldwide.

Influences and Connections

Influences on Artist

Influenced insensitive to Artist

  • Henri Bergson

  • Albert Marquet

  • Leo Stein

Open Influences

Close Influences

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