Priya Kapoor
Henri Matisse is regarded as one of the most influential French artists of the 20th century, known for his bold use of colour and simplified style. Matisse began his art career while working as a law clerk, taking morning drawing classes. He started painting in 1890 while recovering from an attack of appendicitis, copying coloured reproductions from a box of oil paints his mother had given him. In 1891, Matisse abandoned law and moved to Paris to become a professional artist, studying at the Académie Julian and then the École des Beaux-Arts. He was influenced by the French painters Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne, and Vincent van Gogh, and his work is characterised by expressive colour and flowing, heavy contours.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 31 December 1869 |
| Place of birth | Le Cateau, Picardy, France |
| Parents' occupation | Grain business |
| Education | Secondary school in Saint-Quentin, legal studies in Paris, Académie Julian, École des Beaux-Arts |
| Early career | Law clerk, began painting during recovery from appendicitis |
| Artistic influences | Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, Henri-Edmond Cross, Signac, André Derain, Pablo Picasso |
| Notable works | Luxe, Calme et Volupté, Woman with a Hat, The Red Studio, Dance and Music, Goldfish |
| Galleries | Musée Matisse in Nice, The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow |
| Teaching | Académie Matisse in Paris |
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What You'll Learn
Early life and education
Henri Matisse was born on December 31, 1869, in his grandparents' home in Le Cateau, Picardy, in northeastern France. He grew up in the neighbouring town of Bohain-en-Vermandois, which was a small industrial town. His parents worked in the grain business. Matisse showed little interest in art during his early years. From 1882 to 1887, he attended secondary school in nearby Saint-Quentin. He then moved to Paris, where he studied law from 1887 to 1889.
In 1889, Matisse returned to Saint-Quentin and began working as a clerk in a law office. During this time, he started taking early-morning drawing classes at the local École Quentin-Latour. In 1890, while recovering from a severe attack of appendicitis in Bohain, he started painting. He initially copied coloured reproductions from a box of oil paints his mother had given him. Soon, he was decorating his grandparents' home.
In 1891, Matisse abandoned law and returned to Paris to pursue art professionally. He enrolled in the Académie Julian to prepare for the entrance examination at the official École des Beaux-Arts. By the mid-1890s, he began showing his work in large group exhibitions in Paris, including the traditional Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. His work received favourable attention. He travelled to London and Corsica, and in 1898, he married Amélie Parayre. The couple had three children.
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Career beginnings
Henri Matisse was born in 1869 in Le Cateau, Picardy, France. Initially trained in law, he began his art career by taking morning drawing classes while working as a law clerk in Saint-Quentin. He started painting in 1890 while recovering from a severe attack of appendicitis. At first, he copied the coloured reproductions in a box of oil paints his mother had given him, but soon he was decorating his grandparents' home.
In 1891, Matisse abandoned law and moved to Paris to become a professional artist and study at the Académie Julian and later the École des Beaux-Arts. He travelled extensively, living in Spain, Tangier, and Morocco, and in 1903 and 1904, he 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 intense colour. Matisse's fondness for bright and expressive colour became more pronounced after he spent the summer of 1904 painting in St. Tropez with the neo-Impressionists Signac and Henri-Edmond Cross. In that year, he painted his masterpiece in the neo-Impressionist style, Luxe, Calme et Volupté.
In 1905, he travelled southwards again to work with André Derain at Collioure, creating brilliantly coloured canvases structured by colour applied in a variety of brushwork, ranging from thick impasto to flat areas of pure pigment, sometimes accompanied by a sinuous, arabesque-like line. In 1905, Matisse and his friends exhibited their work at the Salon d'Automne, and a critic described them as 'fauves' (wild beasts), a term that inspired the label Fauvism. Matisse was a leader of the Fauvist movement and is known for pursuing the expressiveness of colour throughout his career.
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Artistic influences
Henri Matisse is regarded as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, with stylistic innovations that fundamentally altered the course of modern art. Matisse's career spanned almost six and a half decades and encompassed painting, drawing, sculpture, graphic arts, paper cutouts, and book illustration.
Matisse's interest in art developed at the age of twenty-one. He moved to Paris in 1891 to study art, first at the Académie Julian under the conservative William-Adolphe Bouguereau, and then at the École des Beaux-Arts under the Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau. Initially trained as a lawyer, he abandoned the legal profession in 1891 to become a professional artist.
Matisse's early artistic influences included the Post-Impressionists' use of colour and the writing of art critic Paul Signac. He was exposed to the pointillist technique of small colour dots in complementary colours, perfected by Georges Seurat, through Signac and Henri-Edmond Cross. This influence led to Matisse's Neo-Impressionist masterpiece "Luxe, calme et volupté" (1904).
In 1905, Matisse met Pablo Picasso, and the two artists began a lifelong friendship and rivalry, representing two possible directions for modern art after the death of Paul Cézanne. Matisse was also influenced by his travels to North Africa, including Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. These travels inspired his frequent orientalist topics and the recurring theme of goldfish in aquariums.
Matisse's artistic influences extended beyond painting to drawing, sculpture, and graphic arts. He explored the use of drawing as a direct expression of his thoughts, often using it to work out compositional and stylistic problems or develop new ideas. Matisse's interest in sculpture led him to create the wall decorations and furniture for the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, considered the crowning achievement of his career.
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Fauvism and exhibitions
In the early 1890s, Henri Matisse began his artistic journey by studying painting in Paris, first at the Académie Julian and later with symbolist artists like Gustave Moreau. His early works were predominantly still lifes and interiors, often dark in tone and showing the influence of Dutch Old Masters. A trip to the Caribbean in 1888-89 introduced brighter colours into his palette, and his style gradually became more expressive, with bolder brushwork.
It was in the summer of 1905 that Matisse's work took a pivotal turn towards Fauvism. He spent the summer painting in the French seaside town of Collioure with fellow artist André Derain. They experimented with a vibrant palette and loose, expressive brushwork, creating landscapes and figure studies that would become characteristic of Fauvist style. The term "Fauvism" was actually coined a few months later, at the Salon d'Automne exhibition in Paris, where Matisse and several other artists, including Derain, Vlaminck, and Braque, displayed their works. The vibrant, non-naturalistic use of colour in these paintings startled viewers, and one critic described the artists as "fauves" (wild beasts), giving the movement its name.
Fauvism was a short-lived movement, but it had a significant impact on the development of modern art. Matisse and his colleagues sought to use colour in a way that emphasized its emotional and decorative qualities, rather than simply depicting the natural colours of objects. They were influenced by the work of Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cézanne, who had all explored the expressive use of colour in their work. The Fauvist style is characterized by pure, vibrant colours used straight from the paint tube, bold, simplified forms, and a sense of spontaneity in the brushwork.
Matisse exhibited his work regularly in the years following the Salon d'Automne, both in France and abroad. In 1906, he participated in the Salon des Indépendants and had his first solo exhibition at the gallery of Ambroise Vollard in Paris. Vollard was an important art dealer who had previously exhibited the works of Cézanne, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. Matisse also exhibited with the Berlin Secession in 1907 and the Allied Artists' Association in London in 1908, helping to spread the influence of Fauvism internationally.
In addition to his painting, Matisse also explored other media, including sculpture, printmaking, and book illustration. He was a prolific draughtsman, producing a vast body of drawings that often served as studies for his paintings. Matisse's work was not always well-received by critics and the public, who found his use of colour and form too radical. However, he gradually gained recognition, and by the 1920s, he was widely regarded as one of the most important artists of his time.
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Legacy
Henri Matisse is widely regarded as one of the greatest colourists of the 20th century and a key figure in French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. He is also recognised as the leader of the Fauvist movement, which began around 1900 and lasted until 1910. Fauvism, as a style, lasted only a few years, from 1904 to 1908, and had three exhibitions.
Matisse's pursuit of the expressiveness of colour throughout his career and his wild use of colour to express his feelings about the material world are notable aspects of his legacy. His works are characterised by flowing, heavy contours, large patches of luminous colour, minimal shadows, and a flatness that defies traditional perspective rules. He also explored other artistic mediums, including sculpture, printmaking and collage.
Matisse's first solo exhibition was held at Ambroise Vollard's gallery in 1904 without much success. However, his career was boosted by the support of important collectors such as Gertrude and Leo Stein, who purchased his condemned painting, "Woman with a Hat". He also routinely joined the Stein's Saturday evening gatherings, which included other notable artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and André Derain.
Matisse's works have been exhibited in various museums and galleries worldwide, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Musée Matisse in Nice, which houses one of the world's largest collections of his works. His works have also been auctioned at Christie's, with "Odalisque, mains dans le dos" and "L’Odalisque, harmonie bleue" achieving world record auction prices for the artist.
Matisse's legacy also includes his influence on other artists, such as Picasso, who claimed that "Matisse left his Odalisques to me, as a legacy" and proceeded to create his own set of odalisques. Additionally, his friends organised and financed the Académie Matisse in Paris, a private school where Matisse instructed young artists.
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Frequently asked questions
Matisse started his career in art by taking morning drawing classes while working as a law clerk. He began painting in 1890 while recovering from a severe attack of appendicitis.
Matisse was born on December 31, 1869, in Le Cateau, Picardy, France. He grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois and attended secondary school in nearby Saint-Quentin from 1882 to 1887. He then studied law in Paris from 1887 to 1889 before returning to Saint-Quentin to work as a law clerk.
Matisse is known for his use of expressive colours and forms, heavy contours, large patches of luminous colour, minimal shadows, and a flatness that defies traditional perspective rules. His style is often described as Fauvist.
Matisse's most famous works include "Luxe, Calme et Volupté" (1904), "Woman with a Hat" (1905), "The Red Studio" (1911), and "The Joy of Life".
Matisse is regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, with a career spanning almost six and a half decades. He was a leader of the Fauvist movement and his stylistic innovations fundamentally altered the course of modern art, influencing younger generations of painters.
