Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

, 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 technique ...

, 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 sc ...

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

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

, as one of the artists who best helped to define the

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

developments in the visual arts 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 may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

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

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million French Riviera The French Riviera, known in French as the (; , ; ), is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is considered to be the coastal area of the Alpes-Maritimes department, extending fr ...

, 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 U ...

. 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 may also refer 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 Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

. 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 tradit ...

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 televisi ...

department in Northern France on

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

in 1869, the oldest son of a wealthy grain merchant. He grew up in

Bohain-en-Vermandois Bohain-en-Vermandois () is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, department of Aisne in Hauts-de-France in northern France. It is the place where the painter Henri Matisse grew up. Etymology Formerly called Bohain, the t ...

Picardie Picardy (; Picard and , , ) is a historical and cultural territory and a former administrative region located in northern France. The first mentions of this province date back to the Middle Ages: it gained its first official recognition in the ...

. In 1887, he went to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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 (anatomy), appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fever and anorexia (symptom), decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these t ...

. 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 and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...

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

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

and at the

École Nationale des Beaux-Arts École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

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 (: 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, human-m ...

s and

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

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 a French painter who was a 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 mythologic ...

, and

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

, as well as by modern artists, such as

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, 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 (art movement), R ...

, and by

Japanese art Japanese art consists of a wide range of art styles and media that includes Jōmon pottery, ancient pottery, Japanese sculpture, sculpture, Ink wash painting, ink painting and Japanese calligraphy, calligraphy on silk and paper, Ukiyo-e, paint ...

. 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 a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. In 1896, Matisse, an unknown art student at the time, visited the Australian painter John Russell on the island of

Belle Île Belle-Île (), Belle-Île-en-Mer (), or Belle Isle (, ; ) is a French island off the coast of Brittany in the ''département in France, département'' of Morbihan, and the largest of Brittany's islands. It is from the Quiberon peninsula. Admini ...

off the coast of

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

. Russell introduced him to

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and to the work of

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

—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 Color theory, or more specifically traditional color theory, is a historical body of knowledge describing the behavior of colors, namely in color mixing, color contrast effects, color harmony, color schemes and color symbolism. Modern color ...

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; ; ) 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 Established in 1862 by the painter a ...

, two of which were purchased by the state.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 Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

(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). ...

, 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 turbu ...

and then went on a trip to

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

.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. He initially became one of the Fauve painters and a lifelong friend of Henri Matisse. Marquet subsequently painted in a more naturalistic style, primarily landscapes, bu ...

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. In 2025, all of Derain’s work entered the public domain in the United States. Life and career Early ...

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 Juli ...

,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, born at Corenc, near Grenoble, on 9 July 1871. He was a pupil of Gustave Moreau. He was a contemporary of Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, Albert Marquet, Henri Evenepo ...

. 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 u ...

, a painting by

Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...

, a drawing by Van Gogh, and Cézanne's ''

Three Bathers ''Three Bathers'' (French: ''Trois Baigneuses'') is an 1879-1882 oil-on-canvas painting by Paul Cézanne, which is housed in the Petit Palais in Paris. It shows three bathing female nudes framed in an arch formed by two trees. Executed in a typic ...

''. 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, is the characteristic style in Neo-Impressionist painting defined by the separation of colors into individual dots or patches that interact optically..Homer, William I. ''Seurat and the Science of Pain ...

technique he adopted after reading

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

'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 ( Forrest; born 25 December 1940) is a British writer, known for her work as a journalist and biographer. Early life and education Born in Stockport, Cheshire, to circuit judge Gilbert Alexander Forrest (1912–1977) and t ...

, "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 sculptor Alfred Barye. Biography Born in Paris, France, Barye ...

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

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, 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 founde ...

'', 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 commu ...

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, Pos ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

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, 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 modern art, ...

Fauvism

Fauvism Fauvism ( ) is a style of painting and an art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of (, ''the wild beasts''), a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong col ...

as a style began around 1900 and continued beyond 1910. The

movement Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger co ...

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 ...

, 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. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, 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 being a major supporter an ...

'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 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 (; 20 May 1856 – 16 May 1910), born Henri-Edmond-Joseph Delacroix (), 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 ...

. In that year, he painted the most important of his works in the neo-Impressionist style, '' Luxe, Calme et Volupté''. In 1905, he travelled southwards again to work with

Collioure Collioure (; , ) 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 arrondissement of Céret. ...

. 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 ...

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

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

Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), known mononymously as Donatello (; ), was an Italian Renaissance sculpture, Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sc ...

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 ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

-type sculpture that shared the room with them.Chilver, Ian (Ed.)
"Fauvism"
, The Oxford Dictionary of Art,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2004. Retrieved from enotes.com, 26 December 2007. His comment was printed on 17 October 1905 in ''

Gil Blas ''Gil Blas'' ( ) 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 by Tobias Smollett in 1748 as ''The Adventures of Gil Blas of S ...

'', 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 Mallarm� ...

—but also some favourable attention. When the painting that was singled out for special condemnation, Matisse's, ''Woman with the Hat'', was bought by Gertrude 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. Matissetoits

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 sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with ...

Raoul Dufy Raoul Dufy (; 3 June 1877 – 23 March 1953) was a French painter associated with the Fauvist movement. He gained recognition for his vibrant and decorative style, which became popular in various forms, such as textile designs, and public build ...

, 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 were ...

. The

Symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

painter

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

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

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 (; ; born Kostrowicki; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist and art critic of Poland, Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...

, 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 organized by thAssociation of American Painters and Sculptors It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of the many exhibition ...

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 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. It is split betwee ...

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

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...

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

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

in 1906 studying African art and

Primitivism In the arts of the Western world, Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that means to recreate the experience of ''the primitive'' time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western philosophy, Primitivism propo ...

. 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 Muslims, Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across ...

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

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

in 1912 and again in 1913 and while painting in

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

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 ''The Red Studio'' (French: ''L'Atelier Rouge'') is an oil on canvas painting by French artist Henri Matisse from 1911. It is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, New York. In 2004, ''L'Atelier Rouge'' came in at ...

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

Sergei Shchukin Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin (; 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 Ivanovich Shchukin was born on in Moscow, one of ten c ...

. He created one of his major works '' La Danse'' specially for Shchukin as part of a two painting commission, the other painting being ''

Music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

'' (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. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of arc ...

in New York City.

Selected works (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 located adjacent to Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art and contemporary art. It is directly opposite Buff ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

File:Matisse-Luxe.jpg, '' Luxe, Calme et Volupté'', 1904,

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

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

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an 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 charge, the museum was privately established in ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

File:Matisse - Green Line.jpeg, '' Portrait of Madame Matisse (The green line),'' 1905, Statens Museum for Kunst,

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, 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 exh ...

'', 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, ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

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

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

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

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 is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

File:Matisse.mme-matisse-madras.jpg, '' Madras Rouge'', ''The Red Turban'', 1907,

(Exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show) 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 was acquired by Karl Ernst Osthaus who included it into the Folkwang Museum in Hagen ...

'', 1908,

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is an art museum located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. With paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from around the world, its three-story building stands in Forest Park in ...

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

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 instrum ...

,'' 1908,

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

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

, Russia

Sculpture

File:Henri Matisse, 1900-1904, Le Serf (The Serf, Der Sklave), bronze.jpg, ''Le Serf'' (''The Serf, Der Sklave''), 1900–1904, bronze File:Henri Matisse, 1905, Sleep, wood, exhibition Blue Rose (Голубая Роза), 1907, location unknown.jpg, ''Sleep'', 1905, 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, ''Nu couché, I'' (''Reclining Nude, I''), 1906–07, bronze, exhibited at Montross Gallery, New York, 1915 File:Henri Matisse, 1908, Figure décorative, bronze.jpg, ''Figure décorative'', 1908, bronze File:Matisse - left to right 'The Back I', 1908-09, 'The Back II', 1913, 'The Back III' 1916, 'The Back IV', c. 1931, bronze, Museum of Modern Art (New York City).jpg, '' The Back Series,'' bronze, left to right: ''The Back I,'' 1908–09, ''The Back II,'' 1913, ''The Back III'' 1916, ''The Back IV,'' c. 1931, all

, New York City

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 ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...

, 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 beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and ...

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 San F ...

. 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, prophet, and 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 pious woma ...

—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 and socialites during the first part of the 20th century. Claribel trained as a physician and Etta as a piani ...

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 ...

, 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 ..Matisse brought people, everybody brought somebody, and they came at any time and it began to be a nuisance". 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 c ...

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 Par ...

(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 Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Gug ...

. His friends organized and financed the ''Académie Matisse'' in Paris, a private and non-commercial school in which Matisse instructed young artists. It operated from 1907 until 1911. The initiative for the academy came from the Steins and the Dômiers, with the involvement of

Hans Purrmann Hans Marsilius Purrmann (10 April 1880 – 17 April 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 Mu ...

Patrick Henry Bruce Artist Patrick Henry Bruce (3rd from left) & friends/associates in front of the entrance to a Comité des Étudiants Américains de l'École des Beaux-Arts Paris exhibition. Probably at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, circa 1918., 300px Patr ...

, and Sarah Stein. Matisse spent seven months in

from 1912 to 1913, producing about 24 paintings and numerous drawings. His frequent orientalist topics of later paintings, such as

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

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 (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''. The building Designed by German architect Stephan Braunfels, the Pinakothek der Moderne was inaugurated in Se ...

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

'', 1911,

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

The Conversation ''The Conversation'' is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It stars Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert who faces a moral dilemma when his recordings reveal a potential ...

,'' , The Hermitage,

, 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 (, abbreviated as , ''GMII'') is the largest museum of European art in Moscow. It is located in Volkhonka street, just opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The International musical festival Sviatos ...

, Moscow File:Goldfish Matisse.jpg, ''

Goldfish The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of the 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 w ...

'', 1912,

, Moscow File:Matisse Riffian.jpg, ''

Le Rifain assis ''Seated Riffian'' (French: ''Le Rifain assis'') is an oil on canvas painting by Henri Matisse, from December 1912. This work represents an inhabitant of the Rif, in Morocco, dressed in green in a seated position. It is held in the collection of ...

'', 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'' or ''La femme assise'') is an oil painting on canvas by the French artist Henri Matisse from early 1914. It is held in the Museum of Modern Art, in New York. It is a portrait of Germaine ...

,'' 1914,

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

View of Notre-Dame ''View of Notre-Dame'' (French: ''Une vue de Notre-Dame'') is an oil painting by Henri Matisse from 1914. It is held in the Museum of Modern Art, in New York. Experimental period Along with works such as '' Woman on a High Stool'', it belongs to ...

,'' 1914,

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

'', 1914.

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 the 4th arrondissement of Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou. In 2021 it ranked 10th in the list of ...

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

, New York File:Studio, Quad Saint Michel.jpeg, ''Studio, Quad Saint Michel'', 1916,

The Phillips Collection The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips and Marjorie Acker Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H. Laughli ...

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, 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. ''Ceme ...

on the

French Riviera The French Riviera, known in French as the (; , ; ), is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is considered to be the coastal area of the Alpes-Maritimes department, extending fr ...

, a suburb of the city of

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million return to order The Return to Order ( French: ''retour à l'ordre'') was a European art movement following the First World War that rejected the extreme avant-garde art of the years up to 1918 and emphasized the classical ideals of order and rationality. The movem ...

" is characteristic of much post-

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

art, and can be compared with the

neoclassicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

of Picasso and

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

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

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 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 after he met Matisse in the United States. Barnes was an art enthusiast and long ...

'', 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 ...

, 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 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 (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the Battle of France, ...

. In September 1940, he wrote Pierre: "It seemed to me as if I would be deserting. 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. 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, although 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 wallp ...

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 adenomatou ...

. 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 The ''Artists in Exile'' exhibition was a seminal art show held from March 3 to 28, 1942, at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York City. This exhibition featured fourteen prominent European artists who had fled the turmoil of World War II and sou ...

", 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 ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the Nazi occupation and the collaborationist Vichy regime in France during the Second World War. Resistance cells were small groups of armed men and women (called the Maquis ...

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 Nazi 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 of 1 ...

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 a Jewish Orthodox family. While he was still a boy, they moved to Danzig, where he grew u ...

was killed in the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

in 1944.

Final years

Cut-outs

Diagnosed with abdominal cancer in 1941, Matisse underwent surgery that left him reliant on a wheelchair and often bed bound. Painting and sculpture became physical challenges, so 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 i ...

. He 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. Gouach ...

by his assistants, into shapes of varying colours and sizes, and arranged them to form lively compositions. The result was a distinct and dimensional complexity—an art form that was not quite painting, but not quite sculpture. His initial pieces were modest in size, but he eventually developed murals and room-sized works. He referred to his final years as his second life, because while his mobility was limited, he could wander through gardens in the form of his cut-outs. 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'', an opera composed by

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

. Albert C. Barnes 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, , sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), also known as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario an ...

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 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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

''. 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 ''salon (gathering), 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 during World War II, German occupation of France.Ferrier, Jean ...

and met with success. The artwork was a commission for American collectors Sidney and Frances Brody and the cut out was then adapted 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 1961 ...

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 Christian liturgy, liturgical vestment worn by clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist in Western-tradition Christianity, Christian churches that use full vestments, primarily in Catholic Church, Roman Catholic ...

, 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. In 1952, Matisse 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 economist and investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Bank, Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of ...

, Matisse's final work was the design for a

stained-glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

window installed at the Union Church of Pocantico Hills near the Rockefeller estate north of New York City: "It was his final artistic creation; the

maquette A ''maquette'' is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture or work of architecture. The term is a loanword from French. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', a diminutive of the Italian word for a sketch. Sculpture A maquette ...

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

Death

Matisse died of a heart attack at the age of 84 on November 3, 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), acquired in 1912 by the

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

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

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

(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 Spanish painter, sculptor and Ceramic art, ceramist. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, Drafter, draftsman and Printmaking, printmaker, who was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His work was particularly influenced ...

Jean Dubuffet Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (; 31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French Painting, painter and sculpture, sculptor of the School of Paris, École de Paris (School of Paris). His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" 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 was the son of a retired navy captain, and was born January 5, 1900, at the Ministry of Naval Aff ...

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

Paul Delvaux Paul Delvaux (; 23 September 1897 – 20 July 1994) was a Belgian painter noted for his dream-like scenes of women, classical architecture, trains and train stations, and skeletons, often in combination. He is often considered a surrealist, alt ...

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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 manifest ...

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 ima ...

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, Zao Wou Ki,

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, Hungary – Paris, 12 September 2008; took French nationality in 1966) is a painter generally associated with abstract art. Biography After studying at the Budapest School of Fine Art, he traveled ...

, 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. 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 that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

in the neighbourhood of Cimiez. His ''

The Plum Blossoms ''The Plum Blossoms'' is a 1948 painting by Henri Matisse. It is held in the Museum of Modern Art, in New York. Provenance On September 8, 2005, it was purchased for New York's Museum of Modern Art by Henry Kravis and the new president of the mu ...

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

Henry Kravis Henry Roberts Kravis (born January 6, 1944) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist.Marie-Josée Drouin. Its estimated price was $25 million. Previously, it had not been seen by the public since 1970. A

crater A crater is a landform consisting of a hole or depression (geology), depression on a planetary surface, usually caused either by an object hitting the surface, or by geological activity on the planet. A crater has classically been described ...

on the planet Mercury was named Matisse in his honor in 1976. In film, Matisse was portrayed by

Joss Ackland Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland (29 February 1928 – 19 November 2023) was an English actor who appeared in more than 130 film, radio and television roles. He was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for portraying ...

in ''

Surviving Picasso ''Surviving Picasso'' is a 1996 American biographical drama film directed by James Ivory and starring Anthony Hopkins as the famous painter Pablo Picasso. It was produced by Ismail Merchant and David L. Wolper. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenp ...

'' (1996), as well as by Yves-Antoine Spoto in ''

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 and aspiring novelist, who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationsh ...

'' (2011). The

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

short story " 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.

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 in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

, 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 was then moved to New York's

, where it was on display from October 12, 2014, until February 10, 2015. The newly conserved cut-out, ''The Swimming Pool'', which had not been exhibited for more than 20 years, returned to the galleries as the centerpiece of the exhibition. In 2018, Matisse's work was exhibited alongside that of

Raymond Hains Raymond Hains (9 November 1926 – 28 October 2005) was a French visual artist and a founder of the Nouveau réalisme movement. In 1960, he signed, along with Arman, François Dufrêne, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Jacques Villeglé and P ...

and

Éric Sandillon Éric Sandillon, born in 1969, is a French visual artist, filmmaker, and applied arts teacher. Biography He was born in 1969 and currently resides in Paris. Sandillon holds a degree in applied arts. In 1998, he exhibited his works at the Galler ...

at the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. This exhibition, titled "''Colour of Gobelins: Contemporary Gobelins from the 'Mobilier national' collection in France''," took place during the sixth edition of the Riga Textile Art. From 1 May to 10 September 2022, the Museum of Modern Art exhibited Matisse's painting ''

The Red Studio ''The Red Studio'' (French: ''L'Atelier Rouge'') is an oil on canvas painting by French artist Henri Matisse from 1911. It is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, in New York. In 2004, ''L'Atelier Rouge'' came in at No. 5 in a pol ...

'', along wit
"paintings and drawings closely related to ''The Red Studio''"

Partial list of works

Paintings

* '' Woman Reading'' (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 located adjacent to Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art and contemporary art. It is directly opposite Buff ...

* '' Luxe, Calme, et Volupté'' (1904), Musée National d'Art Moderne * '' Green Stripe'' (1905) * '' The Open Window'' (1905) * '' Woman with a Hat'' (1905) * '' Les toits de Collioure'' (1905) * ''

Landscape at Collioure ''Landscape at Collioure'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Henri Matisse from 1905. It is typical of his Fauvist style of the period. It is part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, in New York. See also * List of works b ...

'' (1905) * ''

'' (1906) * '' The Young Sailor II'' (1906) * '' Self-Portrait in a Striped T-shirt'' (1906) * '' Madras Rouge'' (1907) * '' Blue Nude'' (1907),

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

'' (1908),

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') 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 border ...

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

'' (1911) * ''

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

'' (1912) * ''

Le rideau jaune ''The Yellow Curtain'' (French: ''Le rideau jaune'') is a painting by Henri Matisse created in 1915. Its size is . It is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, in New York. Matisse's original title for the painting, ''Composition'', draw ...

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

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has list of largest art museums, one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it cove ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

* ''

'' (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, United States. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, the museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian art, Asian and Art of anc ...

* ''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 ( ) is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all m ...

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, 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'' ...

(45 ft by 15 ft) in the Barnes Foundation of Philadelphia * ''

Robe violette et Anémones ''Purple Robe and Anemones'' (French: ''Robe violette et Anémones'') 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 collector and soci ...

'' (1937) * '' Woman in a Purple Coat'' (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. Measuring 92 × 73 cm, the painting is currently held at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris. It depicts a woman in a blue skirt and a white embroidered blouse. ...

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

* '' Le Lanceur De Couteaux'' (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, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. It has one of the largest single co ...

* '' L'Asie'' (1946) * '' Deux fillettes, fond jaune et rouge'' (1947) * ''

'' (1947) * ''

'' (1948) * Chapelle du Saint-Marie du Rosaire (1948–1951) * '' Beasts of the Sea'' (1950) * '' The Sorrows of the King'' (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 shif ...

'' (1952) * ''

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

'' (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 ''The Boat'' (French: ''Le Bateau'') 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'' ...

'' (1954) This

created a minor stir when the

MoMA 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. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

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, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

, Bertrand Guégan (1892–1943); ''L'almanach de Cocagne pour l'an 1920–1922, Dédié aux vrais Gourmands Et aux Francs Buveurs''Notice ''WorldCat''sudocBnF
. Engraved on wood and unpublished drawings of: Matisse, J. Marchand, R. Dufy, Sonia Lewitska, de Segonzac,

Jean Émile Laboureur Émile Laboureur, known as Jean Émile (16 August 1877, Nantes16 June 1943, near Pénestin) was a French painter, designer, engraver, watercolorist, lithographer, and illustrator. Biography He was born to a prosperous bourgeois family. In 1895, ...

, Friesz, Marquet, Pierre Laprade, Signac, Louis Latapie,

Suzanne Valadon Suzanne Valadon (; 23 September 1865 – 7 April 1938) was a French painter who was born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the . She was also the ...

Henriette Tirman Jeanne-Henriette Tirman (9 July 1875 in Charleville-Mézieres ( Ardenne) – 30 October 1952 in Sèvres (Hauts-de-Seine)) was a French woman painter and printmaker. Biography Henriette Tirman was a Post-Impressionist painter, printmaker and ...

and others.

Writings

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

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

References

Notes

Bibliography

* . . * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Matisse and his Cats

Footage of Henri Matisse in Vence, France working on the New Chapel of Vence
* 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 The New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC) consists of the research libraries of three leading art museums in New York City: The Brooklyn Museum, The Frick Collection, and The Museum of Modern Art. With funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundatio ...

project. Matisse exhibition catalog, and photoarchive file of ''Young Sailor II''. *
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matisse, Henri 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 collage artists French male painters French male sculptors 20th-century French printmakers

Henri Henri is the French form of the masculine given name Henry, also in Estonian, Finnish, German and Luxembourgish. Bearers of the given name include: People French nobles * Henri I de Montmorency (1534–1614), Marshal and Constable of France * H ...

French Orientalist painters People from Le Cateau-Cambrésis French Post-impressionist painters School of Paris Modern printmakers

Early life and education

Fauvism

Selected works (1901–1910)

Sculpture

Gertrude Stein, Académie Matisse, and the Cone sisters

Selected works (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

Paintings

Illustrations

Writings

References

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

External links