For joie de vivre and artistic innovation, there are few bodies of work to rival that of Henri Matisse. His painting, printmaking, sculpture and cut-outs sit alongside the achievement of Pablo Picasso as one of the defining visions in 20th-century art.
Matisse was born into the bourgeoisie of northern France near the border with Belgium in 1869. He trained as a lawyer in Paris and worked as a clerk before turning to painting while convalescing from appendicitis in 1889. He joined the studio of the Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau in 1892, before studying under Moreau at the École des Beaux Arts. Moreau’s dictum, ‘you must think through colour’, would have a lasting impact on Matisse.
Beginning with his and André Derain’s development of Fauvism in the early 1900s, colour would remain the central tenet of Matisse’s work. He produced the Fauvist masterpiece, Le Bonheur de Vivre, between 1905 and 1906, but by 1907 Fauvism was being superseded by Picasso and Braque’s Cubism. Matisse rejected Cubism and instead developed his own unique decorative approach. This resulted in some of the 20th century’s most beautiful colourist artworks, including Harmony in Red (1908), Dance I (1909) and Red Studio (1911).
For Matisse, art fulfilled a profoundly positive role in society — a spiritual shelter from the realities of the world. His exploration of colour was a part of this ideology. ‘What I dream of,’ he wrote, ‘is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter.’
By the 1920s, the key aesthetic elements of Matisse’s art had been founded: highly patterned interiors peopled with odalisques or still lifes. These can be found in works such as Interior, Flowers and Parakeets (1924), and Odalisque couchée aux magnolias (1923), which achieved a record price for a work by the artist when it sold at Christie’s in 2018 for $80.8 million. He would return to a looser decorative aesthetic by the 1930s, producing pieces such as L’Odalisque, Harmonie Bleue (1937).
In 1941 illness began to restrict Matisse physically and he turned to drawing and paper cutting. Towards the end of his life he created some of his finest works, including the iconic Blue Nude (1952), The Snail collage (1952–53) and his murals and stained-glass for the Vence Chapel in the south of France (1948–51). Matisse died in 1954 in Nice.
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Académie, buste ancien
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Étude pour 'Nu bleu'
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Deux odalisques
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Le grand bois
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Odalisque couchée aux magnolias
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nu de dos, 4 état (Back IV)
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose
Henri Matisse (1868-1954)
L'Odalisque, harmonie bleue
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Portrait au manteau bleu
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Les Pivoines
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Les régates de Nice
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
La fenêtre ouverte
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nu au coussin bleu
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Odalisque, mains dans le dos
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
L'artiste et le modèle nu
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Nu au bord de la mer
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nu à la chaise longue
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nu à la serviette blanche
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Mademoiselle Matisse en manteau écossais
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1953)
Le Danseur
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nu à la fenêtre
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Paysage de Collioure
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nu aux jambes croisées
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nymphe et faune rouge
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nu assis, fond bleu
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Anémones au miroir noir
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Bouquet, vase chinois
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Jeune femme assise en robe grise
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
La pudeur (L'Italienne)
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nu couché II
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Collioure en août
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Jeune fille à la mauresque, robe verte
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Promenade des oliviers
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Océanie, le ciel
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
La danse
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Oliviers à Collioure
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Figure assise et le torse grec (la gandoura)
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Étude pour La Dormeuse (Le Rêve)
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954)
Nature morte au purro, I
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Tête de femme penchée (Lorette)
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Femme auprès de la fenêtre
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Jeune fille en robe blanche, assise près de la fenêtre
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Odalisque
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nu à la serviette blanche
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Figure assise, tapis rayé
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
La blouse verte brodée
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Jeune fille en robe blanche, assise près de la fenêtre
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nu couché II
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Antique et oeillets
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
L'Italienne (Lorette)