Henri Matisse was the key artist in the Fauvist movement of the other 20th 100 , one of the first avant - garde movement in European art . Matisse came from humble beginnings and come up to the top of the international artistic production world . His long and prolific calling begin before the turn of the century and spanned two public wars , several painting expressive style and fine art media from paint to carving to paper cutouts . Matisse made color a key element in his paintings . He felt that the colors could strongly affect people ’s feelings , self-governing of build , and that " the chief function of color should be to serve expression as well as potential " [ informant : Matisse ] .

Matisse ’s art earned him great plaudit , but critics also ridiculed him and even accuse him of hedonism . Many mass pry playfulness at Fauvism for its " childish " qualities , and the public debated whether it was true fine art or merely decoration [ beginning : Harrison ] . One emotion Matisse ’s workplace never inspired was tedium ; people around the world had ( and still have ) very solid chemical reaction to Matisse ’s work . After all , how many artist have been burned in image at an outside artistic production expounding , as Matisse was at Chicago ’s Armory Show in 1913 [ rootage : PBS ] ?

While some people disliked Matisse ’s work , others heaped him with honour and praise . France honor Matisse in 1925 by making him a chevalier , the lowest higher-ranking member of the Legion of Honor . Matisse received first loot at the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1927 , and Pablo Picasso arranged for Matisse ’s work to be exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in 1944 to celebrate France ’s dismission from Nazi rule [ source : Encyclopedia of World Biography ] .

Beneath all the hoopla , Henri Matisse was a restrained , serious man of simple habits . He grew from a languid boy who found beauty in the outskirts of his town – where he observe the birds , look for blooming wild violet , and recreate with his protagonist among the wrecking of a medieval castle – into a fecund artist with a love of color and a seemingly endless supplying of inspiration . Matisse never drop off the flavor of theEarthand nature that he cultivated in his puerility , and nature was a preferred theme of his nontextual matter throughout his life [ source : Spurling ] .

What made Matisse tick , and what was it about his work that got such strong response from people around the globe ? take on to learn all about Henri Matisse .

Henri Matisse Biography

Henri Emile Benoît Matisse was born in a two - elbow room cottage with a dirt level in the French Ithiel Town of Le Cateau - Cambrésis on Dec. 31 , 1869 . The kin moved to the town of Bohain when Matisse was just 8 days previous . His father was a food grain merchant who possess a ecumenical computer storage , and his female parent was an amateur creative person who painted on ceramics and made lid [ source : Morgan ] . Matisse ’s don was a strict , practical , no - nonsense man who expected his son to go into commercial enterprise , and the town of Bohain was filled with similar - disposed , industrious , firmly - working multitude , many of whom manufactured textiles or grew sugar beets . Hardly the scenic village one might think bring up a budding artist , Bohain was satisfy with smoking chimneys ; textile dyes polluted the streams , and the streets often reek of beetroot pulp [ source : Spurling ] .

After going to Paris in 1887 to study law , Matisse pass the bar with distinction in 1888 . His founding father capture him a clerking position at a law office , but Matisse had little sake in his study , which he found so slow he sometimes entertained himself by pelting passersby with bits of paper from a peashooter .

He continued a lifelong pattern of dutifully doing what others require of him until he was 20 years old and hospitalized with digestive problems . His female parent bring him a box of rouge to occupy his time , and Matisse had an epiphany : " From the moment I held the box of colors in my hand , I know this was my life . " Matisse bought a do - it - yourself picture handbook and enrolled in art classes without his Fatherhood ’s cognition [ source : Spurling ] . He analyze art at the Académie Julian in Paris under Adolphe William Bouguereau until 1892 , when he left to meditate under Gustave Moreau at the École des Beaux - Arts until 1897 [ source : Encyclopedia of World Biography ] .

Matisse had a daughter , Marguerite , with his lover Caroline Joblaud in 1894 , but he would marry Amélie Noellie Parayre in January 1898 . Amélie loyally bear Matisse during more than 40 years ofmarriageuntil their separation in 1939 . They had two sons together , Jean ( born in 1899 ) and Pierre ( born in 1900 ) . Matisse was diagnose with duodenal genus Cancer in 1941 and was for good hold in to a wheelchair after that . He go of aheartattack on Nov. 3 , 1954 , at age 84 .

Matisse Paintings

Henri Matisse ’s early painting included still - lifes in the traditional Flemish elan , using a dark palette . His style deepen dramatically after he gossip Australian puma John Peter Russell on Belle Îsle off the coast of Brittany in 1897 and 1898 , where Russell introduced Matisse to the employment of then - unknown Vincent Van Gogh .

Other artists influence Matisse ’s work , as well . He experimented with Neo - Impressionist Paul Signac ’s pointillist technique , which used colored dots to imprint an paradigm ; this led to his masterpiece " Luxe , calme et volupté " [ source : Hughes , Dabrowski ] . Post - Impressionist Paul Gauguin ’s symbolic economic consumption of color also inspired Matisse . However , it was Post - Impressionist Paul Cézanne ’s work that influenced Matisse the most ; Matisse was deeply affected by Cézanne ’s " Three Bathers , " and he called Cézanne a " god of picture " [ source : Matisse ] . Matisse admired Cézanne ’s use of form and outer space , and his " merit of want the tones to be forces in a picture " [ sources : Schmahmann , Matisse ] .

He painted his first masterpiece , " The Dinner Table , " in 1897 . Matisse exhibit it in the Salon d’Automne in Paris , but the Salon gave it a poor localisation because of what it saw as radical Impressionist characteristics .

Matisse go extensively during the early 1900s , which helped him to acquire his painting further . His painting in Morocco of the model Zorah show a modest , self-examining theatrical role that ’s a contrast to his other more sensual limning of women . When Matisse chew the fat Saint - Tropez , he discover southern brightness level , and his palette brightened . Matisse paint " Woman with a Hat , " which began the Fauvist movement , during a visit to Collioure .

Matisse painted in several style throughout his long career . His Fauvist period ( 1905 - 1907 ) develop great works such as " The Green Line , " " Bonheur de vivre " and " Marguerite Reading . " Matisse focused on nontextual matter and decoration from 1908 - 1913 , when he painted " Reclining Odalisque " and " Dance and Music . " He even experiment withCubismfrom 1913 - 1917 , when he painted " The Piano Lesson , " " Yellow Curtain " and " position of Notre - Dame . " Matisse also focused on female figure during his early overnice period ( 1917 - 1930 ) .

The creative person was n’t stringently a painter , however . Matisse also experimented with drafting , carving and lifelike art . He also paint a mural - sized commission in 1933 , which he build up using cutout of colored report . He continued to work with paper cutouts after that , and he made them his principal esthetic medium after 1940 [ source : Dabrowski ] .

Next , we ’ll talk more about Matisse ’s participation with Fauvism .

Matisse and Fauvism

Matisse was the founding father of the Fauvism movement , which live on from 1905 to 1907 . The apparent motion got its name when an artwork critic at the first Fauvist exhibition in 1905 pointed to a Renaissance statue in the thick of the paintings and call out , " Donatello au milieu des fauves ! " ( " Donatello among the hazardous beast ! " ) . Other artist in the Fauvism movement included Gustave Moreau , Albert Marquet , Henri Manguin , Charles Camoin , Andre Derain , Georges Braque , Maurice de Vlaminck , Kees van Dongen and Emile - Othon Friesz [ source : Schmahmann ] .

The Fauvism movement is known for the function of bright , saturated colour and bluff brushstrokes . Fauvists left colour unblended , which interfered with the perception of three - dimensional depth in the image . Fauvist painters used contrasting or complementary colors in their paintings , and they typically wanted to use colors that represented the feeling they were attend for – not of necessity the colour the target was in real life-time [ source : National Gallery of Art ] .

Fauvism was surrounded by controversy . Some critics connect Fauvism with anarchist idea , which had become pop in the nineties due to a political dirt known as the Dreyfus Affair , but Vlaminck was the only Fauvist who actively promote anarchism .

Critics also accused Matisse and other Fauvists of hedonism . This is part because Matisse often paint fair sex , many of whom were nude . Some of his paintings also have a mood of lack of suppression , such as " Bonheur de vivre , " which depicts naked serviceman and adult female embracing , dancing and reclining in nature . " Bonheur de vivre " was also called " Joie de vivre , " an expression that advert to hedonism . Matisse himself , however , was a very reserved man with regular habits , and other paintings of his , such as the landscapes he painted in Collioure and his " Classical " arcadian scenes , reflect more button-down , middle - class value .

While critics often tried to tie the Fauves to political or societal movements , they were really a loose , informal grouping of creative person without link to any particular feeling system . The beliefs the Fauves shared with one another were about color and graphics , not about politics or social outcome [ beginning : Harrison ] .

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