Henri Emile Benoit Matisse 1869 1954

Henri Matisse was born at Le Cateau-Cambrésis in the North of France on

December 31, 1869. In 1887/88 studied law in Paris, in 1889 he was employed as a clerk in a solicitor’s office. It was in 1890 that he was first attracted to painting. Confined to his bed for nearly a year (1890) after an intestinal operation, he chose drawing as a pastime. Then the hobby took best of him and he decided for the painting career. The long years of learning followed: in 1891 Matisse studied under Bouguereau at the Académie Julian, and in 1892 transferred unofficially to Gustave Moreau’s studio at the Ecole Beaux-Arts, where he met Marquet, at the same time attending the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs. In 1896 he made a successful début at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and a year later displayed there his large canvas La Desserte, which showed the influence of the Impressionists. In 1905 and 1906, when his talent now fully developed, exhibited at the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Indépendants together with Derain, Marquet, Vlaminck, Roauault and others and sparked off controversy. The group was ironically nicknamed “Les Fauves” (The Wild ones). At that time Matisse displayed a tendency towards monumental, decorative compositions. In 1908 Matisse painted the monumental canvas The Red Room; and in 1909-10 executed two large decorative panels, The Dance and The Music on commissions from the Moscow businessman S. Shchukin. Sculpture, too, began to occupy a significant place in Matisse’s artistic endeavor and was exhibited for the first time in 1912, in New York. In 1920 and 1939, Matisse designed stage sets and costumes for ballets. In his last years he devoted a great deal of his time to cut-outs and brush drawings. The Musée Matisse was opened in 1952 at Le Cateau-Cambrésisi, his birthplace. Matisse died on November 3, 1954 and was buried in the cemetery at Cimiez.

Dinner Table 1897

Fruit and Coffee-Pot 1899

André Derain 1905

Madame Matisse, "The Green Line" ( La Raie verte) 1905

Woman with a Hat 1905

The Window 1905

Le bonheur de vivre 1905-1906

Harmony in Red 1908

The Dance 1910

The Music 1910

Red Fish 1911

The Red Studio 1911

Interior in Aubergines 1911-12

Yellow Curtain 1914-15

The Moroccans 1916

The Music Lesson 1917

Le genou levé 1922

Decorative Figure  on an Ornamental Background 1925-26

Nude Sitting in an Armchair 1926

Odalisque on a Turkish Sofa. 1928

Music 1939

Polynesia, The Sea 1946 (Gouache on paper cut-out)

Icarus 1947 (Gouache on paper cut-out)

Blue Nude IV 1952

Sorrow King 1952

Self-Portrait

CM