Henri Matisse

Henri Emile Benoit Matisse was born on December 31, 1869, in Le Cateau-Cambresis, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. His father, named Emile Hippolyte Matisse, was a merchant, whose family were weavers. His mother, named Anna Heloise Matisse (nee Gerard), was a daughter of a tanner; she made hats and painted china. Young Matisse was a pensive child penchant to observe pigeons, a habit which he would reproduce in his later years. From1887-1889 he studied law in Paris, then worked as a law office clerk back in Le Cateau-Cambresis. Art was brought into Matisse's world by his loving mother. She bought him art supplies during his lengthy convalescence from an operation of appendectomy. Bedridden for several months Matisse began to copy paintings. After he was recovered from his illness, Matisse abandoned law in favor of art. In 1891 he again went to Paris; this time he studied art at the Academie Julian. There his teachers were W.-A. Bouguereau, an Academist, and Gustave Moreau, a Symbolist. He also copied masterworks at Paris museums and broadened his mind with such influences as Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne, and Vincent van Gogh, whose paintings he bought in 1899. "In modern art, it is undoubtedly to Cezanne that I owe the most"- wrote Matisse. He was inspired by the impressionist's use of color as an element of composition. From 1896 Matisse was sending his paintings to various exhibitions in Paris, and in 1904 he had his first solo show. His style developed through experiments with separating elements of the artwork into color, line, form, and composition - and then integrating those elements untraditional. Matisse's artistic evolution from classical Academism to Fauvism took about 10 years of experiments. He introduced more expressive and bright colors during his 1905 work on the French Riviera. After an exhibition in 1905, Matisse and his followers Derain, Vlaminc, Van Dongen, and Vuillard were given the name Les Fauves (Wild Ones). Then Matisse went to Spain and Northern Africa, where he was inspired by the bright colours of the sun. He studied Spanish and Moorish cultures and was fascinated with the traditions and art. His impressions of national dances inspired his Le Dance I (The Dance I 1907), a composition of five pink dancers. It was acquired from Matisse by Gertrude Stein and later donated to the Museum of Modern Art. Matisse was generously patronized by two Russian collectors: Savva Morozov and Sergei Shchukin. He further developed the dance theme in a more dynamic composition of Le dance II (The Dance II 1910). In the second dance he used a bolder interplay of colors and stronger lines to create a sense of moving figures. He made three monumental canvasses: The Red Room, The Dance II, and The Music on commissions from the Russian businessman Sergei Shchukin, who was buying Matisse from 1908-1914 for his mansion. In 1911 Matisse traveled to Russia on Shchukin's invitation. In Moscow he advised Shchukin on the display of his vast art collection, which also included the works of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, and many other artists. In Russia Matisse saw collections of ancient Russian icons and his high praise of them was widely reported. From 1906-1917 Matisse lived in Paris. He established his home, studio, and school at Hotel Biron. There his neighbors were sculptor Auguste Rodin, writer Jean Cocteau, and dancer Isadora Duncan. Marisse was in touch with the artistic community of Montparnasse. In 1906 he met Pablo Picasso and they became friends and exchanged paintings. In 1907 he visited Italy and Algeria, and in 1908 he published a book "The Notes of a Painter." In 1910 he visited Munich to see exhibitions of Oriental art. He spent winters of 1912 and 1913 in Marocco perfecting his color scheme under Mediterranian sun. By that time Matisse along with Picasso was seen as the leading new painter in Paris. In 1918 Guillaume Apollinaire organized and cataloged the first Matisse-Picasso exhibition. Matisse's life-long extraordinary artistic dialogue with Pablo Picasso took a form of a "visual conversation" and exchange of their paintings with mutual respect. The two artists often inspired each other and paralleled each other's artistic experiments. From 1917 Matisse lived in the South of France, mainly at Hotel Regina in Cimiez, a suburb of Nice. There his techniques and color scheme undergone a series of transformations. In 1920 Matisse designed the stage set and decorations for ballet The Nightingale by Igor Stravinsky produced by Sergei Diaghilev. In 1930 he made a trip to Tahiti, then visited New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. There Matisse was commissioned to make a triptych on the theme of dance for the Barnes Foundation. From 1931-1933 he painted his largest works, a mural Le Dance III (The Dance III 1931), a triptych, for the Museum of the City of Paris, and a variant of Le Dance III (The Dance III 1933), also a triptych, for the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. For this gigantic task Matisse hired the 22-year-old Russian émigré Lidia Delektorskaya, who tirelessly supported all his efforts as an art assistant and factotum. Matisse's ailing wife Amelie Parayre demanded that the golden-haired Russian manager be fired, "It's me or her", and the help was fired. Then Madame Matisse demanded divorce anyway and walked out on Matisse after 31 years of marriage. Matisse fell seriously ill and rehired Delektorskaya. In 1940, he was diagnosed with duodenal cancer and undergone a radical surgery at Clinique du Parc, Lyon, in January 1941. Delektorskaya was with Matisse all the time; she comforted him through his illness and recovery, and prolonged his artistic activity for another two decades. He designed the stage decoration and costumes for ballet "Rouge at Noir" by choreographer Léonide Massine to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. He also illustrated works by Stéphane Mallarmé, Charles Baudelaire, Mariana Alcoforado, and Henry de Montherlant, among many others. Being physically handicapped in his later years Matisse was spurred by Pablo Picasso and developed a variety of methods and techniques that allowed him to make art from a wheelchair or from his bed. At that time he made such outstanding works as Jazz, The Snail, a series of Blue Nudes, and Memories of Oceania. In 1944-1947 he worked on a unique art book "Jazz" with 20 cut-outs and hand-written text. A documentary film on Matisse was made in Nice in 1946. Matisse triumphed over his disability and produced remarkable works of art, contributing to the avant-garde and abstract art of the day. Matisse created an art-world of a highest aesthetic value and artistic quality. During 60 years of his artistic journey Matisse founded the style of Fauvism and touched many other artistic movements of the 20th Century. He at times paralleled the work of Pablo Picasso by interpreting similar subjects in his own way. Among his last works were designs of interior decorations and stained-glass panels for churches, notably his design of Vence chapel, which Matisse donated and considered his masterpiece. Henri Matisse died on November 3, 1954, and was laid to rest in the cemetery on the hilltop at Cimiez. Matisse museum was opened in Nice.