Henri Matisse

Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse was born December 31, 1869 in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord, France.  In 1887 he went to Paris to study law.  He began painting two years later when after an appendicitis attack his mother brought him art supplies to occupy him while he recovered.

He later called this first foray into painting "a kind of paradise" and decided to become a professional artist (much to the dismay of his father, a successful grain merchant).  In 1891 he began to study art in Paris under William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Gustave Moreau.  He started out painting landscapes and still-lifes in the traditional style and became rather proficient.

Matisse visited painter John Peter Russell on Belle Île off the coast of Brittany in 1896-97.  It was Russell who introduced Matisse to the works of van Gogh.  Van Gogh had been a contemporary of Russell but was completely unknown at the time.  During his time with Russell Matisse's style changed radically.  He would later say "Russell was my teacher, and Russell explained color theory to me."

 In 1898 Matisse traveled to London to study the works of J. M. W. Turner then took a trip to Corsica.  In February 1899 he returned to Paris and began working with Albert Marquet and also met André Derain, Jean Puy, and Jules Flandrin.  During this time he nearly went broke buying art he admired from other artists.  He had, among others, works by Rodin, Cézanne, van Gogh and Gaugin in his home.  Matisse was taken with Cézanne's use of pictorial structure and color and was very influenced by it.

 From 1898 to 1901 Matisse painted in the Divisionist technique, meaning he painted in dots which visually come together to create color instead of using paint in the color he was trying to achieve.  A preoccupation with form can be seen in the his work from 1902-03, which may be a reflection of his life in poverty at the time.

In 1904 Matisse had his first solo exhibition at Ambroise Vollard's gallery.  It wasn't very well-received.  In the summer of 1904 Matisse traveled to San Tropez where use of bright colors became a part of his style.  He traveled again in 1905 to the south to work with André Derain at Collioure.  He wasn't as prone to using pointilism as before and flat shapes and lines became a dominant feature of his work.

 At the first exhibit of a gathering of Fauves (see below) Matisse showed Open Window (paragraph above) and Woman with a Hat (left).  By this time Matisse had found a group of like-minded artists who weren't too concerned about portraying the normal colors of a subject.  Siblings Getrude and Leo Stein bought Woman with a Hat giving Matisse much needed money and improved his disposition.  Matisse found himself a leader amongst the Fauves.

In 1906 Matisse met Pablo Picasso.  Matisse was 36 and Picasso was 24.  The two became life-long friends and rivals.  They are often compared with each other, however, while Matisse generally took his inspirations from nature, Picasso was more inclined to find inspiration within his own imagination.  The pair were first brought together at the salon of Gertrude Stein and her partner Alice B Toklas.  Stein and her brothers became collectors of Matisse's work.

By 1907 Matisse was recieving both critical acclaim and terrible reviews.  This made it difficult to make ends meet.  His painting Nu bleu was actually burned in effigy in Chicago in 1913.  The Dance (left) was created for his long-time friend, Russian Sergei Shchukin and is now displayed in the Hermitage in St Peterburg, Russia.

In 1912 and 1913 Matisse traveled to Moracco where again his style was influenced by his surroundings.  Around this time he began using black as a color and intense, unmodulated color as evidenced in L'Atelier Rouge (left).  Many of Matisse's best and most well-known paintings were created between 1906 and 1917.

In 1917 Matisse left Paris to live on the French Riviera near Nice.  His work over the next decade or so shows a more softened, delicate approach.  After World War 1 his work was more neo-classical than anything else.  

Matisse dabbled in oriental odalisque style during this time.  An odalisque is a female concubine and in the 1920's became a very popular subject for painters.  While his work in this style during this period was popular, it was condemned by critics as common and simply decorative.

After 1930 a renewed simplification was evident in his work.  In 1939 he and his wife of 41 years, Amélie Noellie Parayre, separated.  In 1941 Matisse underwent surgery in which a colostomy was performed.  From then on Matisse used a wheelchair.

With the aid of assistants Matisse began making large scale paper collages (gouaches découpés).  His Blue Nudes series is a prime example of this technique which he referred to as painting with scissors.  As when he was younger the simplicity of color and shape was his primary goal.

In 1947 Matisse published Jazz, a compilation of his thoughts and colorful paper cut-outs.  A reproduction of this book can be purchased on Amazon, simply click on the link towards the bottom of the page.

In 1952 Matisse established a museum to his own work in Le Cateau-Cambrésis where he was born.  Two years later, in 1954, Matisse died of a heart attack.  He is interred at Monastère Notre Dame de Cimiez, near Nice, France.

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