The intense colorism of the works he painted between 1900 and 1905 brought him notoriety as one of the Fauves (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 on the French Riviera, 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. After 1930, he adopted a bolder simplification of form. When ill health in his final years prevented him from painting, he created an important body of work in the medium of cut paper collage.
His mastery of the expressive language of color and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.
Matisse initially worked in law, but discovered a passion for art when he began painting as an amateur. He went on to study traditional academic painting. In the early years of the twentieth century, however, he rejected the idea that painting had to imitate the appearance of nature. His characteristic innovations were the use of vibrant, arbitrary colors; bold, autonomous brushstrokes; and a flattening of spatial depth.
Ironically, Matisse often applied his thoroughly modern style to traditional subjects such as still lifes, landscapes, and portraits. Such works express a sense of timeless joy and stillness that runs counter to the frenetic, technologically inspired compositions of many of his contemporaries. Although primarily dedicated to painting, Matisse was also active as a sculptor and printmaker. In the 1940s, in failing health, he embarked on a well-known group of cut-paper collages.
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Mr. Henri Matisse |
Woman reading 1894 |
The dinner table 1897 |
Notre-Dame, une fin d'après-midi 1902 |
Luxe, calme et volupté 1904 |
La dance 1905 |
Portrait of Madame Matisse 1905 |
Femme au chapeau 1905 |
Le bonheur de vivre 1906 |
Self-portrait in a striped T-shirt 1906 |
Blue nude 1907 |
Bathers with a turtle 1908 |
The Goldfish 1912 |
The Moroccans 1912 |
Arabian Coffee House 1913 |
The blue window 1913 |
Vue de Notre-Dame 1914 |
Bathers by a river 1916 |
Bathers by a river 1916 |
Interior at Nice 1920 |
Large reclining nude 1935 |
Window in Tahiti 1935 |
Robe violette et Anémones 1937 |
Woman in a Purple Coat 1937 |
La musique 1939 |
La blouse roumaine 1940 |
Codomas 1943 |
Le lanceur de couteaux 1947 |
Portrait of LN Delekorskaya 1947 |
Nu bleu IV 1952 |
Sorrow of the King 1952 |
The Parakeet and the Mermaid 1952 |
La gerbe 1953 |
Le bateau 1953 |
The Snail 1953 |
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