Who Was Henri Matisse?

Few individuals had as large and enduring an impact on the art world in the 1900s as multi-talented visual artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954). Despite discovering his artistic skill at a relatively late age, the Frenchman went on to master several disciplines besides painting, including sculpting and paper cutouts. That breadth is just one reason why Matisse is considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He is also remembered for establishing a new respect for color and expressive techniques in the field of art.

Matisse was born Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse in Le Chateau-Cambresis, France. In his late teens, he traveled to Paris to begin an education in law. He first started painting around the age of 20 when he was temporarily sidelined by illness. The new endeavor ultimately proved so pleasing, Matisse decided to leave law behind in favor of a career in art.

After studying art for several years at Académie Julian in Paris, Matisse had his first exhibit in 1896, which resulted in two of five paintings sold. In the next two years, Matisse studied under painter John Peter Russell, who is credited with introducing him to the art movement called Impressionism popularized in the 19th century. Matisse, influenced by post-Impressionist painters like Gauguin, Paul Cézanne and Van Gogh, began further developing his craft next through travels outside France to places like London, England.

A hallmark of the artistic crowd Matisse belonged to in the early stages of his career was the use of bold colors and shapes to express the painter's message. As a result, Matisse and his peers became known as "Fauves" in 1905 when they exhibited their work together at Salon d'Automne. The word is French for "wild beasts," and the avant-garde art movement it gave birth to, called Fauvism, from 1905-1907, was alternatively appreciated and derided for its "primitive," unrefined method of incorporating color that seemed flung on the canvas.

In 1908, Matisse wrote "Notes of a Painter," in which he described his creative goal as attempting to find "the essential character of things." No matter which particular discipline he worked in during subsequent years, that aspiration remained his primary objective. From 1908 to 1913, his work included large-scale pieces, such as the mural "Dance and Music." Then from 1913 to 1917, he experimented with the Cubism pioneered by Pablo Picasso, his good friend and contemporary. In 1917, Matisse settled permanently in Nice, France, and his work until 1930, called the early Nice period, featured odalisque--women dressed in Eastern garb--imagery as focal points.

After 1930, Matisse's work branched out further into book illustration, graphic art, paper cutouts and wall decorations for the Chapel of the Rosary at Vence. This period also saw his separation in 1939 from his wife Amélie Noellie Parayre, to whom he was married for 41 years, and a colostomy in 1941. Matisse passed away in 1954 at the age of 84, following a heart attack. He also had one daughter with Caroline Joblau named Marguerite, who frequently posed as his model, and two sons later with Parayre, named Jean and Pierre.