Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman,

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniqu ...

, and

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is ...

, as one of the artists who best helped to define the revolutionary developments in the

visual arts The visual arts are Art#Forms, genres, media, and styles, art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as ...

throughout the opening decades of the twentieth century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. The intense colourism of the works he painted between 1900 and 1905 brought him notoriety as one of the Fauves (

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...

for "wild beasts"). Many of his finest works were created in the decade or so after 1906, when he developed a rigorous style that emphasised flattened forms and decorative pattern. In 1917, he relocated to a suburb of

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

on the

French Riviera The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation "Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend from ...

, and the more relaxed style of his work during the 1920s gained him critical acclaim as an upholder of the classical tradition in

French painting French art consists of the visual arts, visual and plastic arts (including French architecture, woodwork, textiles, and ceramics) originating from the geographical area of France. Modern France was the main centre for the European art of the Up ...

. After 1930, he adopted a bolder simplification of

form Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens. Form also refers to: * Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter dat ...

. When ill health in his final years prevented him from painting, he created an important body of work in the medium of cut paper collage. 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 Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...

Early life and education

Matisse was born in

Le Cateau-Cambrésis Le Cateau-Cambrésis (, before 1977: ''Le Cateau'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department in northern France. The term Cambrésis indicates that it lies in the county of that name ...

, in the

Nord Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to: Acronyms * National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization * New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US Film and televis ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

in Northern France on

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the December 31, last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly ...

in 1869, the oldest son of a wealthy

grain merchant The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike ...

. He grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois,

Picardie Picardy (; Picard and french: Picardie, , ) is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France. It is located in the northern part of France. Hist ...

, France. In 1887, he went to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

to study law, working as a court administrator in

after gaining his qualification. He first started to paint in 1889, after his mother brought him art supplies during a period of convalescence following an attack of

appendicitis Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these typical symptoms. Severe complications of a r ...

. He discovered "a kind of paradise" as he later described it, and decided to become an artist, deeply disappointing his father.Bärbel Küster. "Arbeiten und auf niemanden hören." ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. Histo ...

'', 6 July 2007. In 1891, he returned to Paris to study art at the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the numbe ...

under

William-Adolphe Bouguereau William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female ...

and at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts under

Gustave Moreau Gustave Moreau (; 6 April 1826 – 18 April 1898) was a French artist and an important figure in the Symbolist movement. Jean Cassou called him "the Symbolist painter par excellence".Cassou, Jean. 1979. ''The Concise Encyclopedia of Symbolism.' ...

. Initially he painted

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

s and

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the p ...

in a traditional style, at which he achieved reasonable proficiency. Matisse was influenced by the works of earlier masters such as Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin,

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for ...

, and

Antoine Watteau Jean-Antoine Watteau (, , ; baptised October 10, 1684died July 18, 1721) Alsavailablevia Oxford Art Online (subscription needed). was a French painter and draughtsman whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement, a ...

, as well as by modern artists, such as

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Bor ...

, and by

Japanese art Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, '' ukiyo-e'' paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga and anime ...

. Chardin was one of the painters Matisse most admired; as an art student he made copies of four of Chardin's paintings in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

. In 1896, Matisse, an unknown art student at the time, visited the Australian painter

John Russell John Russell may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John Russell (English painter) (1745–1806), English painter * John Russell (Australian painter) (1858–1930), Australian painter * John Russell (screenwriter) (1885–1956), author and scree ...

on the island

Belle Île Belle-Île, Belle-Île-en-Mer, or Belle Isle ( br, Ar Gerveur, ; br, label=Old Breton, Guedel) is a French island off the coast of Brittany in the ''département'' of Morbihan, and the largest of Brittany's islands. It is from the Quiberon peni ...

off the coast of

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period o ...

. Russell introduced him to

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passa ...

and to the work of

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

—who had been a friend of Russell—and gave him a Van Gogh drawing. Matisse's style changed completely; abandoning his earth-coloured palette for bright colours. He later said Russell was his teacher, and that Russell had explained

colour theory In the visual arts, color theory is the body of practical guidance for color mixing and the visual effects of a specific color combination. Color terminology based on the color wheel and its geometry separates colors into primary color, seconda ...

to him. The same year, Matisse exhibited five paintings in the salon of the

Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (SNBA; ; en, National Society of Fine Arts) was the term under which two groups of French artists united, the first for some exhibitions in the early 1860s, the second since 1890 for annual exhibitions. 1862 Es ...

, two of which were purchased by the state. Henri + Amélie Matisse Portrait 1898

With the model Caroline Joblau, he had a daughter, Marguerite, born in 1894. In 1898, he married Amélie Noellie Parayre; the two raised Marguerite together and had two sons, Jean (born 1899) and Pierre (born 1900). Marguerite and Amélie often served as models for Matisse. In 1898, on the advice of

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). H ...

, he went to London to study the paintings of

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

and then went on a trip to Corsica.Oxford Art Online, "Henri Matisse" Upon his return to Paris in February 1899, he worked beside

Albert Marquet Albert Marquet (27 March 1875 – 14 June 1947) was a French painter, associated with the Fauvist movement. He initially became one of the Fauve painters and a lifelong friend of Henri Matisse. Marquet subsequently painted in a more natural ...

and met

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. Biography Early years Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, Yvelines, Île-de-France, just outside Paris ...

Jean Puy Jean Puy (8 November 1876 in Roanne, Loire – 6 March 1960 in Roanne) was a French Fauvist artist. Life and work He studied architecture at the École nationale des beaux-arts de Lyon and painting with Jean-Paul Laurens at l'Académie J ...

,Leymarie, Jean; Read, Herbert; Lieberman, William S. (1966), ''Henri Matisse'', UCLA Art Council, p.10. and

Jules Flandrin Jules Flandrin (1871–1947) was a French painter, printer and draughtsman. He was a pupil of Gustave Moreau. He was a contemporary of Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, Albert Marquet, Henri Evenepoel and Léon Printemps. He became somewhat f ...

. Matisse immersed himself in the work of others and went into debt from buying work from painters he admired. The work he hung and displayed in his home included a plaster bust by

Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...

, a painting by

Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetism, Synthetist style that were d ...

, a drawing by Van Gogh, and Cézanne's ''Three Bathers''. In Cézanne's sense of pictorial structure and colour, Matisse found his main inspiration. Many of Matisse's paintings from 1898 to 1901 make use of a

Divisionist Divisionism, also called chromoluminarism, was the characteristic style in Neo-Impressionist painting defined by the separation of colors into individual dots or patches which interacted optically..Homer, William I. ''Seurat and the Science of P ...

technique he adopted after reading

Paul Signac Paul Victor Jules Signac ( , ; 11 November 1863 – 15 August 1935) was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the Pointillist style. Biography Paul Signac was born in Paris on 11 November 1863. ...

's essay, "". In May 1902, Amélie's parents became ensnared in a major financial scandal, the Humbert Affair. Her mother (who was the Humbert family's housekeeper) and father became scapegoats in the scandal, and her family was menaced by angry mobs of fraud victims.Spurling, Hilary, 2005, "Matisse's Pajamas", ''The New York Review of Books'', 11 August 2005, pp. 33–36. According to art historian

Hilary Spurling Susan Hilary Spurling CBE FRSL ( Forrest; born 25 December 1940) is a British writer, known for her work as a journalist and biographer. Early life and education Born at Stockport, Cheshire, to circuit judge Gilbert Alexander Forrest (1912–1 ...

, "their public exposure, followed by the arrest of his father-in-law, left Matisse as the sole breadwinner for an extended family of seven." During 1902 to 1903, Matisse adopted a style of painting that was comparatively somber and concerned with form, a change possibly intended to produce saleable works during this time of material hardship. Having made his first attempt at sculpture, a copy after

Antoine-Louis Barye Antoine-Louis Barye (24 September 179525 June 1875) was a Romantic French sculptor most famous for his work as an ''animalier'', a sculptor of animals. His son and student was the known sculptor Alfred Barye. Biography Born in Paris, France, Bary ...

, in 1899, he devoted much of his energy to working in clay, completing ''The Slave'' in 1903.

Early paintings

File:Matisse the study of moreau.jpg, ''

's Studio'', 1894-1895 File:Matisse - Blue Pot and Lemon (1897).jpg, ''Blue Pot and Lemon'' (1897),

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the largest ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia File:Matisse Mur Rose.jpg, ''

Le Mur Rose ''Le Mur Rose'' (full title: ''Paysage, le mur rose''; ''Landscape, the Pink Wall''), is a painting by Henri Matisse from 1898. It was bought in Paris at the sale of La Peau de l'Ours on 2 March 1914 by Jewish entrepreneur Harry Fuld, who found ...

'', 1898,

Jewish Museum Frankfurt The Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main is the oldest independent Jewish Museum in Germany. It was opened by Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl on 9 November 1988, the 50th anniversary of ''Kristallnacht''. The Jewish Museum collects, preserves and com ...

File:Matisse - Fruit and Coffeepot (1898).jpg, ''Fruit and Coffeepot'' (1898),

, Russia File:Matisse - Vase of Sunflowers (1898).jpg, ''Vase of Sunflowers'' (1898),

, Russia File:Study of a nude by Matisse.jpg, ''Study of a Nude'', 1899,

Bridgestone Museum of Art Artizon Museum , until 2018 , is an art museum in Tokyo, Japan. The museum was founded in 1952 by the founder of Bridgestone Tire Co., Ishibashi Shojiro (his family name means stone bridge). The museum's collections include Impressionists, Po ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

File:Henri Matisse, 1899, Still Life with Compote, Apples and Oranges, oil on canvas, 46.4 x 55.6 cm, The Cone Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art.jpg, ''Still Life with Compote, Apples and Oranges,'' 1899, The Cone Collection,

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of ...

File:Matisse - Crockery on a Table (1900).jpg, ''Crockery on a Table'' (1900),

, Russia

Fauvism

Fauvism Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' (French language, French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the Representation (arts), repr ...

as a style began around 1900 and continued beyond 1910. The movement as such lasted only a few years, 1904–1908, and had three exhibitions.

John Elderfield John Elderfield (born 25 April 1943) was Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from 2003 to 2008.''Who’s Who 2011'', A&C Black, 2011 He served as the Allen R. Adler, Class of 1967, Distinguished Curator a ...

, The ''"Wild Beasts" Fauvism and Its Affinities,'' 1976,

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...

, p.13, The leaders of the movement were Matisse and

. Matisse's first solo exhibition was at

Ambroise Vollard Ambroise Vollard (3 July 1866 – 21 July 1939) was a French art dealer who is regarded as one of the most important dealers in French contemporary art at the beginning of the twentieth century. He is credited with providing exposure and emoti ...

's gallery in 1904, without much success. His fondness for bright and expressive colour became more pronounced after he spent the summer of 1904 painting in

St. Tropez , INSEE = 83119 , postal code = 83990 , image coat of arms = Blason ville fr Saint-Tropez-A (Var).svg , image flag=Flag of Saint-Tropez.svg Saint-Tropez (; oc, Sant Tropetz, ; ) is a commune in the Var department and the region of Provence-Alp ...

with the

neo-Impressionist Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by Georges Seurat. Seurat's most renowned masterpiece, '' A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'', marked the beginn ...

s Signac and

Henri-Edmond Cross Henri-Edmond Cross, born Henri-Edmond-Joseph Delacroix, (20 May 1856 – 16 May 1910) was a French painter and printmaker. He is most acclaimed as a master of Neo-Impressionism and he played an important role in shaping the second phase of t ...

. In that year, he painted the most important of his works in the neo-Impressionist style, ''

Luxe, Calme et Volupté ''Luxe, Calme et Volupté'' is a 1904 oil painting by the French artist Henri Matisse. Both foundational in the oeuvre of Matisse and a pivotal work in the history of art, ''Luxe, Calme et Volupté'' is considered the starting point of Fauvism. T ...

''. In 1905, he travelled southwards again to work with

Collioure Collioure (; ca, Cotlliure, ) is a commune in the southern French department of Pyrénées-Orientales. Geography The town of Collioure is on the Côte Vermeille (Vermilion Coast), in the canton of La Côte Vermeille and in the arrondissemen ...

. His paintings of this period are characterised by flat shapes and controlled lines, using

pointillism Pointillism (, ) is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term "Pointillism" wa ...

in a less rigorous way than before. Matisse and a group of artists now known as " Fauves" exhibited together in a room at the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The f ...

in 1905. The paintings expressed emotion with wild, often dissonant colours, without regard for the subject's natural colours. Matisse showed ''Open Window'' and ''Woman with the Hat'' at the Salon. Critic

Louis Vauxcelles Louis Vauxcelles (born Louis Meyer; 1 January 187021 July 1943) was a French art critic. He is credited with coining the terms ''Fauvism'' (1905) and ''Cubism'' (1908). He used several pseudonyms in various publications: Pinturrichio, Vasari, C ...

commented on a lone sculpture surrounded by an "orgy of pure tones" as "

Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Florence, he studied classical sculpture and used this to develop a complete Renaissance st ...

chez les fauves" (Donatello among the wild beasts),Vauxcelles, Louis

Gil Blas, Supplément à Gil Blas du 17 octobre 1905, p.8, col.1, Salle VII (end). Retrieved from France Gallica, bibliothèque numérique (digital library), Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1 December 2013. referring to a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

-type sculpture that shared the room with them.Chilver, Ian (Ed.)
"Fauvism"
, The Oxford Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved from enotes.com, 26 December 2007. His comment was printed on 17 October 1905 in ''

Gil Blas ''Gil Blas'' (french: L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane ) is a picaresque novel by Alain-René Lesage published between 1715 and 1735. It was highly popular, and was translated several times into English, most notably as The Adventures of G ...

'', a daily newspaper, and passed into popular usage. The exhibition garnered harsh criticism—"A pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public", said the critic

Camille Mauclair Séverin Faust (December 29, 1872, Paris – April 23, 1945), better known by his pseudonym Camille Mauclair, was a French poet, novelist, biographer, travel writer, and art critic. Background Mauclair was a great admirer of Stéphane Mallarmé, ...

—but also some favourable attention. When the painting that was singled out for special condemnation, Matisse's ''

Woman with a Hat ''Woman with a Hat'' (French: ''La femme au chapeau'') is a painting by Henri Matisse. An oil on canvas, it depicts Matisse's wife, Amelie. It was painted in 1905 and exhibited at the Salon d'Automne during the fall of the same year, along with w ...

'', was bought by

Gertrude Gertrude or Gertrud may refer to: Places In space *Gertrude (crater), a crater on Uranus's moon Titania *710 Gertrud, a minor planet Terrestrial placenames * Gertrude, Arkansas *Gertrude, Washington *Gertrude, West Virginia People *Gertrude (gi ...

and

Leo Stein Leo Stein (May 11, 1872 – July 29, 1947) was an American art collector and critic. He was born in Allegheny City (now in Pittsburgh), the older brother of Gertrude Stein. He became an influential promoter of 20th-century paintings. Educatio ...

, the embattled artist's morale improved considerably. Matisse was recognised as a leader of the Fauves, along with André Derain; the two were friendly rivals, each with his own followers. Other members were

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

Raoul Dufy Raoul Dufy (; 3 June 1877 – 23 March 1953) was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textile as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted ...

, and

Maurice de Vlaminck Maurice de Vlaminck (4 April 1876 – 11 October 1958) was a French painter. Along with André Derain and Henri Matisse, he is considered one of the principal figures in the Fauve movement, a group of modern artists who from 1904 to 1908 ...

. The

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and real ...

painter

(1826–1898) was the movement's inspirational teacher. As a professor at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

in Paris, he pushed his students to think outside of the lines of formality and to follow their visions. In 1907,

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French French poetry, poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish-Belarusian, Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered ...

, commenting about Matisse in an article published in ''La Falange'', wrote, "We are not here in the presence of an extravagant or an extremist undertaking: Matisse's art is eminently reasonable." But Matisse's work of the time also encountered vehement criticism, and it was difficult for him to provide for his family. His painting '' Nu bleu'' (1907) was burned in effigy at the

Armory Show The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was a show organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in 1913. It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of ...

in Chicago in 1913. The decline of the Fauvist movement after 1906 did not affect the career of Matisse; many of his finest works were created between 1906 and 1917, when he was an active part of the great gathering of artistic talent in

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montpar ...

, even though he did not quite fit in, with his conservative appearance and strict

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. Th ...

work habits. He continued to absorb new influences. He travelled to

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , religi ...

in 1906 studying African art and

Primitivism Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that either emulates or aspires to recreate a "primitive" experience. It is also defined as a philosophical doctrine that considers "primitive" peoples as nobler than civilized peoples and was an o ...

. After viewing a large exhibition of

Islamic art Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across a wide r ...

in Munich in 1910, he spent two months in Spain studying Moorish art. He visited

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

in 1912 and again in 1913 and while painting in

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the ca ...

he made several changes to his work, including his use of black as a colour. The effect on Matisse's art was a new boldness in the use of intense, unmodulated colour, as in ''

L'Atelier Rouge ''L'Atelier Rouge'', also known as ''The Red Studio,'' is a painting by Henri Matisse from 1911, in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York City. In 2004, ''L'Atelier Rouge'' came in at No. 5 in a poll of 500 art experts voting fo ...

'' (1911). Matisse had a long association with the Russian art collector

Sergei Shchukin Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin (russian: Серге́й Ива́нович Щу́кин; 10 January 1936) was a Russian businessman who became an art collector, mainly of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. Early life and family Sergei ...

. He created one of his major works '' La Danse'' specially for Shchukin as part of a two painting commission, the other painting being ''Music,'' 1910. An earlier version of ''La Danse'' (1909) is in the collection of

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...

in New York City.

Selected works: Paris, 1901–1910

File:Matisse - Luxembourg Gardens (1901).jpg, ''Luxembourg Gardens'', 1901,

, Russia File:Matisse - Dishes and Fruit (1901).jpg, ''Dishes and Fruit'', 1901,

, Russia File:Henri Matisse, 1902, Notre-Dame, une fin d'après-midi, oil on paper mounted on canvas, 72.4 x 54.6 cm, Albright-Knox Art Gallery.jpg, '' A Glimpse of Notre-Dame in the Late Afternoon'', 1902,

Albright–Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted e ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

File:Henri Matisse, 1904, Nu (Carmelita), oil on canvas, 81.3 x 59 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.jpg, ''Nu (Carmelita)'', 1904,

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

File:Matisse-Luxe.jpg, ''

'', 1904,

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French a ...

, France File:Matisse Les toits.jpg, '' Landscape at Collioure'', 1905,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

File:Matisse-Open-Window.jpg, '' Open Window, Collioure'', 1905,

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Image:Matisse - Green Line.jpeg, '' Portrait of Madame Matisse (The green line),'' 1905,

Statens Museum for Kunst The National Gallery of Denmark ( da, Statens Museum for Kunst, also known as "SMK", literally State Museum for Art) is the Danish national gallery, located in the centre of Copenhagen. The museum collects, registers, maintains, researches and han ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Denmark File:Bonheur Matisse.jpg, ''

Le bonheur de vivre ''Le bonheur de vivre'' (''The Joy of Life'') is a painting by Henri Matisse. Along with Picasso's ''Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'', ''Le bonheur de vivre'' is regarded as one of the pillars of early modernism. The monumental canvas was first exhib ...

'', 1905–6,

Barnes Foundation The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Penn ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

File:Henri Matisse Self-Portrait in a Striped T-shirt (1906).jpg, '' Self-Portrait in a Striped T-shirt'' 1906,

, Denmark Image:Young Sailor II.jpg, '' The Young Sailor II,'' 1906,

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

File:Matisse - Vase, Bottle and Fruit (1906).jpg, ''Vase, Bottle and Fruit'', 1906,

, Russia File:Matisse Souvenir de Biskra.jpg, '' Blue Nude'', 1907,

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

File:Henri Matisse, 1907, La coiffure, 116 x 89 cm, oil on canvas, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart.jpg, ''La coiffure'', 1907,

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (, "State Gallery") is an art museum in Stuttgart, Germany, it opened in 1843. In 1984, the opening of the Neue Staatsgalerie (''New State Gallery'') designed by James Stirling transformed the once provincial galler ...

, Stuttgart, Germany File:Matisse.mme-matisse-madras.jpg, ''

Madras Rouge ''Madras Rouge'' (''The Red Madras Headdress'') is a painting by Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draug ...

'', ''The Red Turban'', 1907,

(Exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show) File:Henri Matisse, Le Luxe II, 1907–8, Distemper on canvas; 82 1-2 x 54 3-4 in. (209.5 x 138 cm), Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.jpg, ''Le Luxe II'', 1907–08,

, Denmark File:Henri Matisse, 1907, Les trois baigneuses (Three Bathers), oil on canvas, 60.3 x 73 cm, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.jpg, ''Les trois baigneuses (Three Bathers)'', 1907,

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United Stat ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...

File:Bathers with a turtle.jpg, ''

Bathers with a Turtle ''Bathers with a Turtle'' is a painting by Henri Matisse from 1907 to 1908, in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1908 it has been acquired by Karl Ernst Osthaus who included it into the Folkwang Museum in ...

'', 1908,

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is one of the principal U.S. art museums, with paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from all corners of the world. Its three-story building stands in Forest Park in St. Louis, ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

File:Matisse - Game of Bowls.jpg, ''

Game of Bowls ''Game of Bowls'' is a 1908 painting by the French artist Henri Matisse. The painting shows three young men, probably Matisse's sons and nephew, playing a game of boules. Matisse sees the game as a manifestation of man's creativity, and an instrume ...

,'' 1908,

, Russia File:Henri Matisse, 1909, La danse (I), Museum of Modern Art.jpg, '' La Danse (first version),'' 1909,

File:Henri Matisse, 1909, Still Life with Dance, oil on canvas, 89.5 x 117.5 cm, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.jpg, ''Still Life with Dance'', 1909,

, Russia Image:Matissedance.jpg, '' La Danse (second version),'' 1910,

, Russia File:Henri Matisse, 1910-12, Les Capucines (Nasturtiums with The Dance II), oil on canvas, 193 x 114 cm, Pushkin Museum.jpg, ''Les Capucines (Nasturtiums with The Dance II)'', 1910–12,

Pushkin Museum The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (russian: Музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина, abbreviated as ) is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just oppo ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, Russia File:Matisse - Music.jpg, ''

Music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

,'' 1910,

, Russia

Sculpture

File:Henri Matisse, 1900-1904, Le Serf (The Serf, Der Sklave), bronze.jpg, Henri Matisse, 1900–1904, ''Le Serf'' (''The Serf, Der Sklave''), bronze File:Henri Matisse, 1905, Sleep, wood, exhibition Blue Rose (Голубая Роза), 1907, location unknown.jpg, Henri Matisse, 1905, ''Sleep'', wood, exhibition Blue Rose (Голубая Роза), 1907, location unknown File:Henri Matisse, 1906-07, Nu couché, I (Reclining Nude, I), exhibited at Montross Gallery, New York, 1915.jpg, Henri Matisse, 1906–07, ''Nu couché, I'' (''Reclining Nude, I''), bronze, exhibited at Montross Gallery, New York, 1915 File:Henri Matisse, 1907, Awakening, plaster, exhibition Salon of the Golden Fleece (Салон Золотого Руна) 1908.jpg, Henri Matisse, 1907, ''Awakening'', plaster, exhibition Salon of the Golden Fleece (Салон Золотого Руна) 1908 File:Henri Matisse, 1908, Figure décorative, bronze.jpg, Henri Matisse, 1908, ''Figure décorative'', bronze

Gertrude Stein, Académie Matisse, and the Cone sisters

Around April 1906, Matisse met

, who was 11 years his junior.The Unknown Matisse, pp 352–553...

ABC Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors an ...

, 8 June 2005 The two became lifelong friends as well as rivals and are often compared. One key difference between them is that Matisse drew and painted from nature, while Picasso was more inclined to work from imagination. The subjects painted most frequently by both artists were women and

s, with Matisse more likely to place his figures in fully realised interiors. Matisse and Picasso were first brought together at the Paris

salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon ...

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West (Pittsburgh), Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, Calif ...

with her partner

Alice B. Toklas Alice Babette Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century, and the life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein. Early life Alice B. Toklas was born in Sa ...

. During the first decade of the twentieth century, the Americans in Paris—Gertrude Stein, her brothers

, Michael Stein, and Michael's wife

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pio ...

—were important collectors and supporters of Matisse's paintings. In addition, Gertrude Stein's two American friends from

, the

Cone sisters Claribel Cone (1864–1929) and Etta Cone (1870–1949), collectively known as the Cone sisters, were active as American art collectors, world travelers, and socialites during the first part of the 20th century. Claribel trained as a physician an ...

Claribel and Etta, became major patrons of Matisse and Picasso, collecting hundreds of their paintings and drawings. The Cone collection is now exhibited in the

. While numerous artists visited the Stein salon, many of these artists were not represented among the paintings on the walls at

27 rue de Fleurus 27 rue de Fleurus was the home of the American writer Gertrude Stein and her partner Alice B. Toklas from 1903 to 1938. It is in the 6th arrondissement of Paris on the Left Bank. It was also the home of Gertrude's brother Leo Stein for a time in t ...

. Where the works of

Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...

, Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso dominated Leo and Gertrude Stein's collection, Sarah Stein's collection particularly emphasised Matisse. Contemporaries of Leo and Gertrude Stein, Matisse and Picasso became part of their social circle and routinely joined the gatherings that took place on Saturday evenings at 27 rue de Fleurus. Gertrude attributed the beginnings of the Saturday evening salons to Matisse, remarking:

More and more frequently, people began visiting to see the Matisse paintings—and the Cézannes: Matisse brought people, everybody brought somebody, and they came at any time and it began to be a nuisance, and it was in this way that Saturday evenings began.

Among Pablo Picasso's acquaintances who also frequented the Saturday evenings were

Fernande Olivier Fernande Olivier (born Amélie Lang; 6 June 1881 – 29 January 1966) was a French artist and model known primarily for having been the model and first muse of painter Pablo Picasso, and for her written accounts of her relationship with him. Pic ...

(Picasso's mistress),

, the poets

Max Jacob Max Jacob (; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic. Life and career After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic ca ...

and

Marie Laurencin Marie Laurencin (31 October 1883 – 8 June 1956) was a French painter and printmaker. She became an important figure in the Parisian avant-garde as a member of the Cubists associated with the Section d'Or. Biography Laurencin was born in Paris, ...

(Apollinaire's mistress and an artist in her own right), and

Henri Rousseau Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910)
at the Dômiers, with the involvement of

Hans Purrmann Hans Marsilius Purrmann (April 10, 1880 – April 17, 1966) was a German artist. He was born in Speyer where he also grew up. He completed an apprenticeship as a scene painter and interior decorator, and subsequently studied in Karlsruhe and ...

Patrick Henry Bruce Artist Patrick Henry Bruce (3rd from left) & friends/associates in front of the entrance to a 300px Patrick Henry Bruce (March 25, 1881 – November 12, 1936) was an American cubist painter. Biography A descendant of Patrick Henry, Bruce wa ...

, and

Sarah Stein Sarah Stein (née Samuels) (July 26, 1870 – 1953) was an American art collector. With her husband Michael Stein, the older brother of Leo Stein and Gertrude Stein, she lived in Paris from 1903 to 1935. She supported and popularized the painter ...

. Matisse spent seven months in

from 1912 to 1913, producing about 24 paintings and numerous drawings. His frequent

orientalist Orientalist may refer to: *A scholar of Oriental studies *A person or thing relating to the Western intellectual or artistic paradigm known as Orientalism *''The Orientalist'', a biography of author Lev Nussimbaum by Tom Reiss {{disambiguation ...

topics of later paintings, such as

odalisque An odalisque (, tr, odalık) was a chambermaid or a female attendant in a Turkish seraglio, particularly the court ladies in the household of the Ottoman sultan. In western usage, the term came to mean the harem concubine, and refers to th ...

s, can be traced to this period. Goldfish in aquariums also became a frequently recurring theme in Matisse's art following his trip to Morocco.

Selected works: Paris, 1910–1917

File:Matisse518.jpg, '' Still Life with Geraniums,'' 1910,

Pinakothek der Moderne The Pinakothek der Moderne (, ''Pinakothek of the Modern'') is a modern art museum, situated in central Munich's ''Kunstareal''. Locals sometimes refer to it as the ''Dritte'' ("third") ''Pinakothek'' after the Old and New. It is one of the world's ...

, Munich, Germany File:Atelier rouge matisse 1.jpg, ''

'', 1911,

, New York City File:Matisse Conversation.jpg, ''

The Conversation ''The Conversation'' is a 1974 American mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and R ...

,'' c.1911, The

Hermitage Hermitage, The Hermitage or L'Hermitage may refer to: * Hermitage (religious retreat), a place of religious seclusion Places * The Hermitage Museum (est. 1754), in Saint Petersburg, Russia * The Hermitage (Nashville, Tennessee), the estate ...

, Russia File:Henri Matisse, 1911-12, La Fenêtre à Tanger (Paysage vu d'une fenêtre Landscape viewed from a window, Tangiers), oil on canvas, 115 x 80 cm, Pushkin Museum.jpg, ''

Window at Tangier ''Window at Tangier''; also referred to as ''La Fenêtre à Tanger'', ''Paysage vu d'une fenêtre'', and ''Landscape viewed from a window, Tangiers'', is a painting by Henri Matisse, executed in 1912. It is held at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts ...

,'' 1911–12, The

Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (russian: Музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина, abbreviated as ) is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just opp ...

, Moscow File:Zorah on the Terrace.jpg, '' Zorah on the Terrace'', 1912, The

Moscow, Russia Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

File:Matisse Riffian.jpg, '' Le Rifain assis'', 1912–13, 200 × 160 cm.

File:Henri Matisse, 1913, Portrait of the Artist's Wife, oil on canvas, 146 x 97.7 cm, Hermitage, Saint Petersburg.jpg, ''Portrait of the Artist's Wife'', 1913,

, Saint Petersburg File:Henri Matisse, 1913, La glace sans tain (The Blue Window), oil on canvas, 130.8 x 90.5 cm, Museum of Modern Art.jpg, ''La glace sans tain'' (''The Blue Window''), 1913,

File:Matisse Woman on a high stool.jpg, ''

Woman on a High Stool ''Woman on a High Stool'' (French: ''Femme au tabouret'', ''La femme assise'') is an oil painting on canvas by the French artist Henri Matisse from early 1914. It is a portrait of Germaine Raynal, the wife of the poet and art critic Maurice Ray ...

,'' 1914,

, New York City File:Henri Matisse - View of Notre Dame. Paris, quai Saint-Michel, spring 1914.jpg, '' View of Notre-Dame,'' 1914,

File:Henri Matisse, 1914, Les poissons rouges (Interior with a Goldfish Bowl), oil on canvas, 147 x 97 cm, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.jpg, ''Les poissons rouges (Interior with a Goldfish Bowl)'',

Musée National d'Art Moderne The Musée National d'Art Moderne (; "National Museum of Modern Art") is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou in the 4th arrondissement of the city. In 2021 it ranked 10th in t ...

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

, Paris File:Porte-Fenetre a Collioure 1914.jpg, ''French Window at

'', 1914.

, Paris File:Yellow Curtain.jpg, '' The Yellow Curtain,'' 1915,

, New York File:Henri Matisse, 1916-17, Auguste Pellerin II, oil on canvas, 150.2 x 96.2 cm, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.jpg, ''Auguste Pellerin II'', 1916–17,

, Paris File:Henri Matisse, 1916-17, Le Peintre dans son atelier (The Painter and His Model), oil on canvas, 146.5 x 97 cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.jpg, ''

The Painter and His Model ''The Painter and His Model'' (French titles: ''Le Peintre dans son atelier'', ''Le peintre et son modèle, l'Atelier, quai Saint-Michel'') is a work by Henri Matisse painted late 1916, early 1917. It is currently in the collection of the Musée ...

(Le Peintre dans son atelier)'', 1916–17, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris File:Henri Matisse, 1917, Three Sisters and The Rose Marble Table (Les Trois sœurs à La Table de marbre rose), oil on canvas, 194.3 x 96.2 cm, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.jpg, ''Three Sisters and The Rose Marble Table (Les Trois sœurs à La Table de marbre rose)'', 1917,

, Philadelphia File:Henri Matisse, 1917, Portrait de famille (The Music Lesson), oil on canvas, 245.1 x 210.8 cm, Barnes Foundation.jpg, ''Portrait de famille (The Music Lesson)'', 1917, oil on canvas, 245.1 x 210.8 cm,

After Paris

In 1917, Matisse relocated to

Cimiez Cimiez (; Italian: ''Cimella'') is an upper class neighborhood in Nice, Southern France. The area contains the Musée Matisse and the ruins of ''Cemenelum'', capital of the Ancient Roman province Alpes Maritimae on the Ligurian coast. ''Cemene ...

on the

, a suburb of the city of

. His work of the decade or so following this relocation shows a relaxation and softening of his approach. This "

return to order The return to order ( French: ''retour à l'ordre'') was a European art movement that followed the First World War, rejecting the extreme avant-garde art of the years up to 1918 and taking its inspiration from classical art instead. The movement ...

" is characteristic of much post-

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

art, and can be compared with the neoclassicism of Picasso and

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

as well as the return to traditionalism of Derain. Matisse's

paintings are characteristic of the period; while this work was popular, some contemporary critics found it shallow and decorative. In the late 1920s, Matisse once again engaged in active collaborations with other artists. He worked with not only Frenchmen, Dutch, Germans, and Spaniards, but also a few Americans and recent American immigrants. After 1930, a new vigor and bolder simplification appeared in his work. American art collector

Albert C. Barnes Albert Coombs Barnes (January 2, 1872 – July 24, 1951) was an American chemist, businessman, art collector, writer, and educator, and the founder of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.“Biographical Note,” Albert C. Barne ...

convinced Matisse to produce a large mural for the

, ''

The Dance II ''The Dance'' by Henri Matisse is a triptych mural (15 ft high by 45 ft long) in the Barnes Foundation. It was created in 1932 at the request of Albert C. Barnes Albert Coombs Barnes (January 2, 1872 – July 24, 1951) was an American ...

'', which was completed in 1932; the Foundation owns several dozen other Matisse paintings. This move toward simplification and a foreshadowing of the cut-out technique is also evident in his painting ''Large Reclining Nude'' (1935). Matisse worked on this painting for several months and documented the progress with a series of 22 photographs, which he sent to Etta Cone.

World War II years

Matisse's wife Amélie, who suspected that he was having an affair with her young Russian emigre companion,

Lydia Delectorskaya Lydia Nikolaevna Délectorskaya (23 June 1910 Tomsk - 16 March 1998 Paris) was a Russian refugee and model best known for her collaboration with Henri Matisse from 1932 onwards. Early life Born in the Siberian city of Tomsk, the only daughter of ...

, ended their 41-year marriage in July 1939, dividing their possessions equally between them. Delectorskaya attempted suicide by shooting herself in the chest; remarkably, she survived with no serious after-effects, and returned to Matisse and worked with him for the rest of his life, running his household, paying the bills, typing his correspondence, keeping meticulous records, assisting in the studio, and coordinating his business affairs. Matisse was visiting Paris when

the Nazis invaded France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second World ...

in June 1940, but managed to make his way back to Nice. His son, Pierre, by then a gallery owner in New York, begged him to flee while he could. Matisse was about to depart for Brazil to escape the occupation of France but changed his mind and remained in Nice, in

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the Fascism, fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of ...

. "It seemed to me as if I would be deserting," he wrote Pierre in September 1940. "If everyone who has any value leaves France, what remains of France?". Although he was never a member of the resistance, it became a point of pride to the occupied French that one of their most acclaimed artists chose to stay, though of course, being non-Jewish, he had that option. While the Nazis occupied France from 1940 to 1944, they were more lenient in their attacks on "degenerate art" in Paris than they were in the German-speaking nations under their military dictatorship. Matisse was allowed to exhibit along with other former Fauves and Cubists whom Hitler had initially claimed to despise, though without any Jewish artists, all of whose works had been purged from all French museums and galleries; any French artists exhibiting in France had to sign an oath assuring their "Aryan" status—including Matisse. He also worked as a graphic artist and produced black-and-white illustrations for several books and over one hundred original lithographs at the

Mourlot Studios Mourlot Studios was a commercial print shop founded in 1852 by the Mourlot family and located in Paris, France. It was also known as Imprimerie Mourlot, Mourlot Freres and Atelier Mourlot. Founded by Francois Mourlot, it started off producing wallpa ...

in Paris. In 1941, Matisse was diagnosed with

duodenal cancer Duodenal cancer is a cancer in the first section of the small intestine known as the duodenum. Cancer of the duodenum is relatively rare compared to stomach cancer and colorectal cancer. Its histology is usually adenocarcinoma. Familial adenomato ...

. The surgery, while successful, resulted in serious complications from which he nearly died. Being bedridden for three months resulted in his developing a new art form using paper and scissors. That same year, a nursing student named Monique Bourgeois responded to an advertisement placed by Matisse for a nurse. A platonic friendship developed between Matisse and Bourgeois. He discovered that she was an amateur artist and taught her about perspective. After Bourgeois left the position to join a convent in 1944, Matisse sometimes contacted her to request that she model for him. Bourgeois became a Dominican nun in 1946, and Matisse painted a chapel in Vence, a small town he moved to in 1943, in her honor. Matisse remained for the most part isolated in southern France throughout the war but his family was intimately involved with the French resistance. His son Pierre, the art dealer in New York, helped the Jewish and anti-Nazi French artists he represented to escape occupied France and enter the United States. In 1942, Pierre held an exhibition in New York, "Artists in Exile," which was to become legendary. Matisse's estranged wife, Amélie, was a typist for the French Underground and jailed for six months. Matisse was shocked when he heard that his daughter Marguerite, who had been active in the

Résistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the Nazi occupation of France and the collaborationist Vichy régime during the Second World War. Resistance cells were small groups of armed men an ...

during the war, was tortured (almost to death) by the Gestapo in a Rennes prison and sentenced to the

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure o ...

in Germany. Marguerite managed to escape from the train to Ravensbrück, which was halted during an Allied air raid; she survived in the woods in the chaos of the closing days of the war until rescued by fellow resisters. Matisse's student

Rudolf Levy Rudolf Levy (15 July 1875, in Stettin – January 1944, in Italy or Auschwitz) was a German expressionist painter of Jewish ancestry. Life He came from an Orthodox family. While he was still a boy, they moved to Danzig, where he grew up. Aft ...

was killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944.

Final years

Cut-outs

Diagnosed with abdominal cancer in 1941, Matisse underwent surgery that left him reliant on a wheelchair and often bedbound. Painting and sculpture had become physical challenges, so he turned to a new type of medium. With the help of his assistants, he began creating cut paper collages, or

decoupage ''Decoupage'' or ''découpage'' (; ) is the art of decorating an object by gluing colored paper cutouts onto it in combination with special paint effects, gold leaf, and other decorative elements. Commonly, an object like a small box or an it ...

. He would cut sheets of paper, pre-painted with

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache ...

by his assistants, into shapes of varying colours and sizes, and arrange them to form lively compositions. Initially, these pieces were modest in size, but eventually transformed into murals or room-sized works. The result was a distinct and dimensional complexity—an art form that was not quite painting, but not quite sculpture. He called the last fourteen years of his life “une seconde vie,” meaning his second life. When talking about his work, Matisse mentioned that, while his mobility was limited, he could wander through gardens in the form of his artwork. Although the paper cut-out was Matisse's major medium in the final decade of his life, his first recorded use of the technique was in 1919 during the design of decor for the ''

Le chant du rossignol ''Le chant du rossignol'' (English: ''The Song of the Nightingale'') is a symphonic poem written by Igor Stravinsky in 1917. The score is adapted from his earlier work, ''Le rossignol'' (''The Nightingale''), an opera from 1914. The opera, based o ...

'', an opera composed by

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

arranged for cardboard templates to be made of the unusual dimensions of the walls onto which Matisse, in his studio in Nice, fixed the composition of painted paper shapes. Another group of cut-outs were made between 1937 and 1938, while Matisse was working on the stage sets and costumes for

Sergei Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pat ...

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...

. However, it was only after his operation that, bedridden, Matisse began to develop the cut-out technique as its own form, rather than its prior utilitarian origin.
He moved to the hilltop of

Vence, France Vence (; oc, Vença) is a commune set in the hills of the Alpes Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France, north of Nice and Antibes. Ecclesiastical history The first known Bishop of Vence is Seve ...

in 1943, where he produced his first major cut-out project for his artist's book titled ''

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

''. However, these cut-outs were conceived as designs for stencil prints to be looked at in the book, rather than as independent pictorial works. At this point, Matisse still thought of the cut-outs as separate from his principal art form. His new understanding of this medium unfolds with the 1946 introduction for ''Jazz''. After summarizing his career, Matisse refers to the possibilities the cut-out technique offers, insisting "An artist must never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of a style, prisoner of a reputation, prisoner of success…"
The number of independently conceived cut-outs steadily increased following ''Jazz'', and eventually led to the creation of mural-size works, such as ''Oceania the Sky'' and ''Oceania the Sea'' of 1946. Under Matisse's direction, Lydia Delectorskaya, his studio assistant, loosely pinned the silhouettes of birds, fish, and marine vegetation directly onto the walls of the room. The two Oceania pieces, his first cut-outs of this scale, evoked a trip to Tahiti he made years before. In May 1954, his cut out The Sheaf was exhibited at the

Salon de Mai The Salon de Mai (the '' May Salon'') is a group of French artists which formed in a café on the Rue Dauphine in Paris in 1943 during the German occupation of France.Ferrier, Jean-Louis. (Ed.) (1999) ''Art of the 20th Century''. Paris: Chene-Hache ...

and met with success. The artwork was a commission for American collectors Mr and Mrs Brody and the cut out was then adpated to a ceramic for their house in Los Angeles. It is now located in the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 196 ...

Chapel and museum

In 1948, Matisse began to prepare designs for the

Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence The Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence (Chapel of the Rosary), often referred to as the Matisse Chapel or the Vence Chapel, is a small Catholic chapel located in the town of Vence on the French Riviera. It was dedicated to the Dominican Order. The chu ...

, which allowed him to expand this technique within a truly decorative context. The experience of designing the chapel windows,

chasubles The chasuble () is the outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist in Western-tradition Christian churches that use full vestments, primarily in Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. In the Eastern ...

, and tabernacle door—all planned using the cut-out method—had the effect of consolidating the medium as his primary focus. Finishing his last painting in 1951 (and final sculpture the year before), Matisse utilized the paper cut-out as his sole medium for expression up until his death.
This project was the result of the close friendship between Matisse and Bourgeois, now Sister Jacques-Marie, despite him being an atheist. They had met again in

Vence Vence (; oc, Vença) is a commune set in the hills of the Alpes Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France, north of Nice and Antibes. Ecclesiastical history The first known Bishop of Vence is Sev ...

and started the collaboration, a story related in her 1992 book ''Henri Matisse: La Chapelle de Vence'' and in the 2003 documentary "A Model for Matisse". In 1952, he established a museum dedicated to his work, the Matisse Museum in Le Cateau, and this museum is now the third-largest collection of Matisse works in France. According to

David Rockefeller David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, ...

, Matisse's final work was the design for a

stained-glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

window installed at the

Union Church of Pocantico Hills Union Church of Pocantico Hills is a historic church in Pocantico Hills, New York. The church was built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1921, as part of his plans to develop the town of Pocantico Hills, which was below his estate Kykuit. Upon the ...

near the Rockefeller estate north of New York City. "It was his final artistic creation; the

maquette A ''maquette'' (French word for scale model, sometimes referred to by the Italian names ''plastico'' or ''modello'') is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', from the Italian word for "sket ...

was on the wall of his bedroom when he died in November of 1954", Rockefeller writes. Installation was completed in 1956.

Death

Matisse died of a heart attack at the age of 84 on 3 November 1954. He is buried in the cemetery of the Monastère Notre Dame de Cimiez, in the

neighbourhood of Nice.

Legacy

The first painting of Matisse acquired by a public collection was '' Still Life with Geraniums'' (1910), exhibited in the

.Butler, Desmond
"Art/Architecture; A Home for the Modern In a Time-Bound City"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 10 November 2002. Retrieved 25 December 2007. His ''

The Plum Blossoms ''The Plum Blossoms'' is a 1948 painting by Henri Matisse. Museum of Modern Art On September 8, 2005, it was purchased for New York's Museum of Modern Art by Henry Kravis Henry R. Kravis (born January 6, 1944) is an American businessman, inve ...

'' (1948) was purchased on 8 September 2005 for the

Henry Kravis Henry R. Kravis (born January 6, 1944) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist.Marie-Josée Drouin. Estimated price was US$25 million. Previously, it had not been seen by the public since 1970. In 2002, a Matisse sculpture, ''Reclining Nude I (Dawn),'' sold for US$9.2 million, a record for a sculpture by the artist. Matisse's daughter Marguerite often aided Matisse scholars with insights about his working methods and his works. She died in 1982 while compiling a catalogue of her father's work. Matisse's son

Pierre Matisse Pierre Matisse (June 13, 1900 – August 10, 1989) was a French-American art dealer active in New York City. He was the youngest child of French painter Henri Matisse. Background and early years Pierre Matisse was born in Bohain-en-Vermandois ...

(1900–1989) opened a modern art gallery in New York City during the 1930s. The Pierre Matisse Gallery, which was active from 1931 until 1989, represented and exhibited many European artists and a few Americans and Canadians in New York often for the first time. He exhibited

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernist, he was associated with several major ...

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo to see his family an ...

Jean Dubuffet Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a ...

Yves Tanguy Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy (January 5, 1900 – January 15, 1955), known as just Yves Tanguy (, ), was a French surrealist painter. Biography Tanguy, the son of a retired navy captain, was born January 5, 1900, at the Ministry of Naval Affa ...

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

, Paul Delvaux,

Wifredo Lam Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (; December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by and in conta ...

Jean-Paul Riopelle Jean-Paul Riopelle, (October 7, 1923 – March 12, 2002) was a Canadian painter and sculptor from Quebec. He had one of the longest and most important international careers of the sixteen signatories of the ''Refus Global'', the 1948 manif ...

Balthus Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (February 29, 1908 – February 18, 2001), known as Balthus, was a Polish-French modern artist. He is known for his erotically charged images of pubescent girls, but also for the refined, dreamlike quality of his image ...

Leonora Carrington Mary Leonora Carrington (6 April 191725 May 2011) was a British-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement o ...

Zao Wou Ki Zao Wou-Ki (; 1 February 1920 – 9 April 2013) was a Chinese-French painter. He was a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Zao Wou-Ki graduated from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, where he studied under Fang Ganmin and Wu ...

Sam Francis Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker. Early life Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California,

, and

Simon Hantaï Simon Hantaï (7 December 1922, Biatorbágy, Kingdom of Hungary, Hungary – Paris, 12 September 2008; took France, French nationality in 1966) is a painter generally associated with abstract art. Biography After studying at the Budapest School ...

, sculptors Theodore Roszak, Raymond Mason, and

Reg Butler Reginald Cotterell Butler (28 April 1913 – 23 October 1981) was an English sculptor. He was born at Bridgefoot House, Buntingford, Hertfordshire to Frederick William Butler (1880–1937) and Edith (1880–1969), daughter of blacks ...

, and several other important artists, including the work of Henri Matisse. Henri Matisse's grandson

Paul Matisse Paul Matisse (born 1933) is an artist and inventor known for his public art installations, many of which are interactive and produce sound. Matisse also invented the Kalliroscope. Early life and education Paul Matisse is the son of New York ga ...

is an artist and inventor living in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. Matisse's great-granddaughter

Sophie Matisse Sophie Alexina Victoire Matisse (born February 13, 1965) is an American contemporary artist. Matisse initially gained notice for her series of ''Missing Person'' paintings, in which she appropriated and embellished upon, or subtracted from, reco ...

is active as an artist. Les Heritiers Matisse functions as his official Estate. The U.S. copyright representative for Les Heritiers Matisse is the

Artists Rights Society Artists Rights Society (ARS) is a copyright, licensing, and monitoring organization for visual artists in the United States. Founded in 1987, ARS is a member of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers and as such repre ...

. The Musée Matisse in Nice, a municipal museum, has one of the world's largest collections of Matisse's works, tracing his artistic beginnings and his evolution through to his last works. The museum, which opened in 1963, is located in the Villa des Arènes, a seventeenth-century

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

in the neighbourhood of Cimiez.

Nazi-looted art

Numerous artworks by Matisse were seized by the Nazis or looted from Jewish collectors or changed hands in forced sales during the Nazi years. In the past twenty years, several artworks by Matisse have been restituted to the heirs of their pre-Third Reich owners, including ''

'', from France's Pompidou Museum to the heirs of Henry Fuld, "''Femme Assise",'' discovered in the stash of Hildebrand Gurlitt's son in Munich, ''La vallée de la Stour,'' which had belonged to ''Anna Jaffé,'' found in the La Chaux-de-Fonds Museum and many others. The German Lost Art Foundation lists 38 artworks by Matisse in the Lost Art Internet Database.

Recent exhibitions

''Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs'' was exhibited at London's

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...

, from April to September 2014. The show was the largest and most extensive of the cut-outs ever mounted, including approximately 100 paper maquettes—borrowed from international public and private collections—as well as a selection of related drawings, prints, illustrated books, stained glass, and textiles. In total, the retrospective featured 130 works encompassing his practice from 1937 to 1954. The Tate Modern show was the first in its history to attract more than half a million people. The show then traveled to New York's

, where it was on display through 10 February 2015. The newly conserved cut-out, ''The Swimming Pool'', which had been off view for more than 20 years prior, returned to the galleries as the centerpiece of the exhibition.

Partial list of works

* ''

Woman Reading ''Woman Reading'' (''La Liseuse'') is an oil-on-board painting executed in 1895 by the French artist Henri Matisse.Klein, John (2001). ''Matisse Portraits''. Yale University press. p. 38. . It is displayed at the Musée Matisse, in Le Cateau-C ...

'' (1894),

Paris * ''

'' (1898), Musée National d'Art Moderne * ''Canal du Midi'' (1898), Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum * '' Notre-Dame, une fin d'après-midi'' (1902),

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted ...

* '' Luxe, Calme, et Volupté'' (1904), Musée National d'Art Moderne * ''

Green Stripe ''The Green Stripe'' (''La Raie Verte''), also known as ''Portrait of Madame Matisse. The Green Line'', is a portrait by Henri Matisse of his wife, Amélie Noellie Matisse-Parayre. It is an oil painting on canvas, completed autumn or winter 1905. ...

'' (1905) * ''

The Open Window Open Window may refer to: * ''Open Window'' (album), a 2004 album by Robert Rich * ''Open Window'' (film), a 2006 American film written and directed by Mia Goldman * ''The Open Window'' (Matisse), a 1905 painting by Henri Matisse * ''The Open ...

'' (1905) * ''

Les toits de Collioure ''Les toits de Collioure'' is a 1905 oil-on-canvas painting by Henri Matisse. It is an example of the style that Matisse employed during his early period of Fauvism. The painting has been in the collection of The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russi ...

'' (1905) * '' Landscape at Collioure'' (1905) * ''

'' (1906) * '' The Young Sailor II'' (1906) * '' Self-Portrait in a Striped T-shirt'' (1906) * ''

'' (1907) * '' Blue Nude'' (1907),

* '' The Dessert: Harmony in Red (The Red Room)'' (1908) * ''

'' (1908),

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

* '' La Danse'' (1909) * '' Still Life with Geraniums'' (1910) * ''

'' (1911) * ''

'' (1908–1912) * '' Zorah on the Terrace'' (1912) * ''

Goldfish The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the wild have b ...

'' (1912) * '' Le Rifain assis'' (1912) * ''

'' (1912) * ''

Le rideau jaune ''Le rideau jaune'' (''The Yellow Curtain'') is a painting by Henri Matisse created in 1915. Its size is 57½ × 38⅛" (146 × 97 cm). It is currently in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Matisse's original title for th ...

(the yellow curtain)'' (1915) * ''The Window'' (1916),

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project complet ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

* ''

'' (1916–17) * ''The Windshield, On the Road to Villacoublay'' (1917),

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egypt ...

* ''La leçon de musique'' (1917) * ''Interior A Nice'' (1920) * ''Festival of Flowers, Nice'' (1923),

* '' Odalisque with Raised Arms'' (1923),

, Washington, D.C. * ''

Yellow Odalisque ''Yellow Odalisque'' is the title of two paintings by Henri Matisse which feature odalisques: * From 1926, at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; also known as ''Nude on a Yellow Sofa'' * From 1937, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadel ...

'' (1926) * ''

'' (1932),

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divide ...

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

(45 ft by 15 ft) in the

Barnes Foundation of Philadelphia The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pen ...

* ''

Robe violette et Anémones ''Robe violette et Anémones'' (known in English at ''Purple Robe and Anemones'') is a 1937 painting by Henri Matisse featuring a woman wearing a purple robe sitting next to a vase of anemones. The painting is among those purchased by art collect ...

'' (1937) * ''

Woman in a Purple Coat ''Woman In A Purple Coat'' or ''The Purple Coat'' is a painting by Henri Matisse from 1937. It depicts Matisse's assistant Lydia Delectorskaya. This painting is an example of Henri Matisse's mature decorative style. Matisse depicts his model an ...

'' (1937) * ''Le Rêve de 1940'' ''(the dream of 1940)'' (1940) * ''

La Blouse Roumaine ''La Blouse Roumaine'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by Henri Matisse from 1940. It measures 92 × 73 cm and is held at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris. The inspiration for the painting seems to have been Elvira Popescu, Elena Văcăres ...

'' (1940) * ''Interior with an Etruscan Vase'' (1940),

* ''

Le Lanceur De Couteaux ''Le Lanceur De Couteaux'' is a paper cut by Henri Matisse from 1947. It is from ''Jazz, 1947.'' History Tériade, a noted 20th-century art publisher, arranged to have Matisse's cutouts rendered as pochoir ( stencil) prints. ''The Knife Thrower ...

'' (1943) * '' Annelies, White Tulips and Anemones'' (1944),

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

* ''

L'Asie ''L'Asie'' (English title: ''Asia'') is a painting by Henri Matisse. It is an oil on canvas painting from 1946. The painting is in the collection of and on public display at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas (USA).Deux fillettes, fond jaune et rouge ''Deux fillettes, fond jaune et rouge (Two Girls in a Yellow and Red Interior)'' (1947), oil on canvas, 61 x 49.8 cm (24 x 19 5/8 inches) is a painting by Henri Matisse in the collection of the Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania. Al ...

'' (1947) * ''

'' (1948) *

Chapelle du Saint-Marie du Rosaire The Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence (Chapel of the Rosary), often referred to as the Matisse Chapel or the Vence Chapel, is a small Catholic chapel located in the town of Vence on the French Riviera. It was dedicated to the Dominican Order. The c ...

(1948–1951) * ''

Beasts of the Sea ''Beasts of the Sea'' (French: ''Les bêtes de la mer'') is a paper collage on canvas by Henri Matisse from 1950. It is currently in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. ) , image_skyline = , image_c ...

'' (1950) * '' Facial-maschera'' (1951) * ''

The Sorrows of the King ''The Sorrows of the King'' is a collage using cut out paper shapes by Henri Matisse from 1952. It was made from paper he had coloured with gouache paint and is mounted on canvas. Its area is 292 x 386 cm. It was his final self-portrait.

'' (1952) * '' Black Leaf on Green Background'' (1952) * ''

La Négresse ''La Négresse'' (1952–53) by Henri Matisse is a gouache découpée, made of cut pieces of colored paper. Medium Starting in the 1930s, Matisse began to experiment with creating art by cutting paper into shapes. By 1950, he had primarily s ...

'' (1952) * ''

Blue Nude II The ''Blue Nudes'' is a series of color lithographs by Henri Matisse made from cut-outs depicting nude figures in various positions. Restricted by his physical condition after his surgery for stomach cancer, Matisse began creating art by cutting ...

'' (1952) * ''

The Snail ''The Snail'' ''(L'escargot)'' is a collage by Henri Matisse. The work was created from summer 1952 to early 1953. It is pigmented with gouache on paper, cut and pasted onto a base layer of white paper measuring 9'4" × 9' 5" (287 × 288 cm). ...

'' (1953) * ''

Le Bateau ''Le Bateau'' ("The Boat") is a paper-cut from 1953 by Henri Matisse. The picture is composed from pieces of paper cut out of sheets painted with gouache, and was created during the last years of Matisse's life. History ''Le Bateau'' caused a m ...

'' (1954) This

created a minor stir when the

MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; ...

mistakenly displayed it upside-down for 47 days in 1961.

Illustrations

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...

, Bertrand Guégan (1892–1943); ''L'almanach de Cocagne pour l'an 1920–1922, Dédié aux vrais Gourmands Et aux Francs Buveurs''

Writings

* ''Notes of a Painter'' ("Note d'un peintre"), 1908 * ''Painter's Notes on Drawing'' ("Notes d'un peintre sur son dessin"), July 1939 * ''

'', 1947 * ''Matisse on Art'', collected by Jack D. Flam, 1973, * ''Chatting with Henri Matisse: The Lost 1941 Interview'', Getty Publications, 2013,

Portrayal in media and literature

Film dramatisations * A film called ''Masterpiece'', about the artist and his relationship with Monique Bourgeois, was proposed in 2011. Deepa Mehta intended to direct with

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Al Pacino, numerous accolades: including an Aca ...

to play Henri Matisse. * Matisse was played by Yves-Antoine Spoto in the 2011 film ''

Midnight in Paris ''Midnight in Paris'' is a 2011 fantasy comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. Set in Paris, the film follows Gil Pender ( Owen Wilson), a screenwriter, who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his materiali ...

''. * Matisse was portrayed by Joss Ackland in the 1996 Merchant Ivory production of ''Surviving Picasso''. Exhibition on screen * The

's Matisse retrospective was part of the film series "Exhibition on Screen", which broadcasts productions to movie theaters. * The film ''Matisse From MoMA and Tate Modern'' combines high-definition footage of the galleries with commentary from curators, museum administrators and, through narration of words from the past, Matisse himself. "We want to show the exhibition as well as we possibly can to the audience who can’t get there", said director Phil Grabsky. Inspired by a similar "event cinema" produced by the Met, Grabsky started his series to simulate the experience of strolling through an art exhibit. Literature * The Ray Bradbury short story "The Vintage Bradbury, The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse" contains an allusion to the artist painting an eye on a poker chip for an American man to use as a monocle. * In Michael Ondaatje's ''Running in the Family (memoir), Running in the Family'', there is a section called 'Don't talk to me about Matisse' * In Henry Miller's ''Tropic of Cancer (novel), Tropic of Cancer'' there are multiple pages lionizing the works and importance of "the bright sage" Matisse, his hero. Music * The British composer Peter Seabourne wrote a septet "The Sadness of the King" (2007) inspired by the late paper cut ''The Sorrows of the King, La Tristesse du Roi''.

References

Notes

Bibliography

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External links

Matisse and his Cats

Footage of Henri Matisse in Vence, France working on the New Chapel of Vence

Henri Matisse: Life and Work
500 hi-res images *
Musée Matisse Nice

Gelett Burgess, "The Wild Men of Paris, Matisse, Picasso and Les Fauves", ''Architectural Record'', 1910''Documenting the Gilded Age: New York City Exhibitions at the Turn of the 20th Century''
A New York Art Resources Consortium project. Matisse exhibition catalog, and photoarchive file of ''Young Sailor II''. *
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matisse, Henri Henri Matisse, 1869 births 1954 deaths 19th-century French painters 19th-century French sculptors 19th-century French male artists 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists 20th-century French sculptors Académie Julian alumni Fauvism French atheists French male painters French male sculptors French printmakers Matisse family, Henri Modern painters Orientalist painters People from Le Cateau-Cambrésis Post-impressionist painters School of Paris

Early life and education

Early paintings

Fauvism

Selected works: Paris, 1901–1910

Sculpture

Gertrude Stein, Académie Matisse, and the Cone sisters

Selected works: Paris, 1910–1917

After Paris

World War II years

Final years

Cut-outs

Chapel and museum

Death

Legacy

Nazi-looted art

Recent exhibitions

Partial list of works

Illustrations

Writings

Portrayal in media and literature

References

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

External links