Henri Matisse - Master of Impressionist Art

“What I dream of is an art of balance, purity, and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter... a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.” - Henri Matisse Henri Matisse was born in Le Cateau-Cambresis, Nord, France. He grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, Picardy, France, where his parents owned a flower business; he was their first son. In 1887, he went to Paris to study law, working as a court administrator in Le Cateau-Cambrésis after gaining his qualification. He first began painting in 1889, after his mother 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. In 1891, he returned to Paris to study art at the Académie Julian and became a student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Gustave Moreau. Initially, he painted still-lives and landscapes in a traditional style proficiently. Matisse was influenced by the works of earlier masters such as Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Nicolas Poussin and Antoine Watteau and Edouard Manet. Chardin was one of Matisse's most admired painters; as an art student, he made copies of four Chardin paintings in the Louvre. He emerged as a Post-Impressionist and achieved prominence as the leader of the French movement Fauvism. He preferred to use color as the foundation for expressive and decorative paintings. He became famous for his original use of colour. He had skills as a draughtsman and a printmaker. He went on also to become a sculptor but was known essentially as a painter. He defined revolutionary developments in the visual arts during the first couple of decades of the twentieth century along with Pablo Picasso. His work between 1900 and 1905 brought him recognition as the `wild one’ or one of the `Fauves’. He developed a style that was rigorous; one which emphasized decorative patterns and flattened forms. He started living in Nice on the French Riviera from 1917 and adopted a more relaxed style of work up to the nineteen twenties. He upheld the classical tradition in French painting style. After 1930, he continued with a simplification of form. Ill health in later years prevented him from painting and he started to do work in the medium of cut paper collage. Matisse has left his stamp through his expressive use of drawing and colour and is an important figure in the history of modern art. He is recognised for his original and fluid draughtsman ship. He was also a fine sculptor and printmaker although he is considered mainly as a painter. Along with Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso, he has helped shape the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts during the initial decades of the twentieth century. Several of his paintings during the last decade of the nineteenth century use a `divisionist’ technique which he adopted after reading Eugene Delacroix and Neo-Impressionism, a work by Paul Signac. His work as a sculptor started with a copy after Antoine-Louis Barye in 1899. He devoted his energy later to working with clay when he completed `The Slave’ in 1903. His solo exhibition was in 1904 at the Ambroise Vollard Gallery. He did not achieve much success. In 1904, he spent a summer painting in St. Tropez with Neo-Impressionists Henri Edmond Cross and Paul Signac. His important works from this period are `Luxe’ and `Calme et Volupte’. He also worked with Andre Derain at Collioure. He laid an emphasis on controlled lines and flat shapes. In 1905, there was an exhibition held by Matisse and a group of artists known as `Fauves’ at the Salon d'Automne. The paintings expressed emotion with wild and dissonant colours, often without regard for the natural colours of the subject. Matisse showed `Open Window’ and `Woman with the Hat’. Critic Louis Vauxcelles described the work with the phrase `Donatello au milieu des fauves!’ (Donatello among the wild beasts); he was referring to a Renaissance-type sculpture that existed in the same room. His comment was printed on 17th October 1905 in `Gil Blas’, a daily. The exhibition drew harsh criticism from some - "A pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public", said the critic Camille Mauclair but it also attracted some favorable attention. When the painting that was singled out for special condemnation, Matisse's `Woman with a Hat’, was bought by Gertrude and Leo Stein, the nervous artist’s morale improved considerably. Matisse once wrote, “if my story were to be written truthfully from beginning to end, it would amaze everyone.” He developed a long association with Sergei Shchukin, a Russian art collector. His major work, `La Danse’ (1909), was done especially for Shchukin. It was part of a double painting commission. The other work was `Music’ (1910). These works could be seen now in the collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Henri Matisse died of a cardiac arrest in 1954, at the age of eighty-four. He is buried in the cemetery of Monastere Notre Dame de Cimiez. It is near Nice. The impact of Matisse on Fauvism is no less than that of William Shakespeare on English literature and Sigmund Freud on psychology. American abstract artists such as Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock were influenced by him in making the colour responsible for structural configurations. Their works showcased this kind of style. Matisse has had a great impact on artists of late twentieth century who defined a pictorial language clearly with colours and arabesque lines instead of making a painting look like a means to an end.