Henri Matisse
(1869 – 1954)
Self-Portrait
1900
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of color and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with
Picasso, as one of the two seminal artists of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture.
Although he was initially labelled 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, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.
Woman Reading
1894
He first started to paint in 1889, when his mother had brought him art supplies during a period of convalescence following an attack of appendicitis. He discovered "a kind of paradise" as he later described it,
[ and decided to become an artist, deeply disappointing his father.
The Maid
1896
Nude with a White Wash Towel
1902-03
"What interests me most is neither still life nor landscape: it is the human figure."
Blue Nude
1905
Le bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life)
1905-06
"Seek the strongest color effect possible... the content is of no importance."
Marguiritte
(the artist's daughter)
1906
Madame Matisse
(the artist's first wife)
1907
1909
"When I put a green, it it not grass. When I put a blue, it is not the sky."
1910
Seville Still-Life
1910-1911
"Expression, for me, does not reside in passions glowing in a human face or manifested by violent movement. The entire arrangement of my picture is expressive; the place occupied by the figures, the empty spaces around them, the proportions, everything has its share."
The Goldfish
1912
"I wouldn't mind turning into a vermilion goldfish."
The White Feather
1919
Odalesque with Red Pants
1921
Odalesque with Gray Pants
1927
"Creativity takes courage."
The Romanian Green Blouse
1939
"The portrait is one of the most curious art forms. It demands special qualities in the artist, and an almost total kinship with the model."
Still-Life with Shellfish
1940
"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 labors it has cost me...."
1944
"There are always flowers for those who want to see them."
Anfitrite
(guouace on paper cut and pasted)
1947
"Cutting into color reminds me of the sculptor's direct carving."
La Gerbe
1953
Blue Nude
1952
The Drawings
"Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence."
1932
1948
1948
1950
1951
Sources
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