
Henri Matisse enjoying an afternoon break from painting with his cat, Minouche, at his apartment and studio in Nice (THE GREAT CAT)
Henri Matisse was a prominent painter who led the movement of Fauvism, which aim is to simplify the forms to the essence and express the emotion evoked by the object. His mastery of the expressive language of brilliant color and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. And Matisse loved cats so dearly as his friend Picasso did!
Henri Matisse
Born on December 31, 1869, in the textile town of Le Cateau in northern France near the Belgian border. His father was a successful grain merchant whose family were weavers.
In 1887 he went to Paris to study law, working as a court administrator in Le Cateau-Cambrésis after gaining his qualification.
As a young man, Matisse worked as a law clerk and then studied for a law degree in Paris in 1887-89. Returning to a position in a law office in the town of Saint-Quentin, he began taking a drawing class in the mornings before he went to work.
Matisse’s mother was the first to advise her son not to adhere to the rules
of art, but rather listen to his own emotions that the object evokes. She supplied him art supplies during the period of convalescence from an attack of appendicitis when he was working at a law office.
Henri Matisse quotes (goodreads)
In 1891 Matisse moved to Paris for artistic training. He was exposed to the recent Post-Impressionist works while living in Paris.
Matisse had a major creative breakthrough in the years 1904-05. A visit to Saint-Tropez in southern France inspired him to paint bright, light-dappled canvases such as Luxe, calme et volupté (1904-05).

Henri Matisse, LUXE, CALME, ET VOLUPTE’ Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1904-05 (henri-matisse.net)
And a summer in the Mediterranean village of Collioure produced his major works Open Window and Woman with a Hat in 1905.

Henri Matisse, The Open Window (1905) (Totallyhistory.com)
He continued to emphasize the emotional power of sinuous lines, strong brushwork and acid-bright colors in works such as The Joy of Life, capturing a mood rather than merely trying to depict the world realistically.
Simplifying the forms to their essence is his overall goal. He had found his own style.
After finding his own style, his art was purchased by prominent collectors such as Gertrude Stein in Paris and the Russian businessman Sergei Shchukin, who commissioned Matisse’s important pair of paintings Dance I and Music in 1909-10.

Music by Henri Matisse – 1910 (WikiArt)
Matisse signed with the prestigious art dealers of Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris and was able to travel Italy, Germany, Spain and North Africa for inspiration. Henri Matisse Artwork began to circulate.
Get your copy on Amazon: Matisse/DiebenkornFeaturing stunning pairings of more than 80 paintings and drawings, this book charts the evolution of Matisse’s impact on Diebenkorn over the course of Diebenkorn’s career.
Minouche, Coussi, La Puce and Doves

Matisse and a cat (THE GREAT CAT)
A series of photographs taken at Villa Le Reve by Helene Adant shows Matisse’s exceptional love for cats and doves. Minouche, Coussi, and La Puce the black cat. He fed his cats pieces of brioche every morning.

Henri Matisse and his cat in bed (THE GREAT CAT)
He loved birds, but especially the doves to no end. It began in 1936 when he was strolling along the banks of the river Seine in that summer. Matisse found a variety of caged songbirds and doves sold by the merchants.

Henri Matisse and a dove (PARLEZ-VOUS PHOTOGRAPHY?)
He’d returned home with five or six birds at a time and delighted in their shapes and colors, plumage and singing.
We can see a lot of doves in Henri Matisse Artwork especially in “the Cut-outs” form.
Nearing the end of his day, Matisse gave Picasso, who loved birds and had canaries and pigeons his own, the last of his fancy pigeons.
Picasso drew its portrait on the famous poster, Dove of Peace.
Picasso: Art, Bio, and his Cat “Minou”
Spirit of Wild Beast
– Fauvism

Blue Nude
1952 102x76cm gouache on paper, cut and pasted,
and charcoal on paper, mounted on canva
Paris, musée d’Orsay, dépôt au musée Matisse/Nice. (art-Matisse.com)
Matisse is the leader of this movement, whose members shared the use of intense color as a vehicle for describing light and space, and who redefined pure color and form as means of communication the artist’s emotional state.
His underlying aim was to discover the essential character of things and to produce an art of balance, purity, and serenity,
as he himself put it.
Initially inspired by the examples of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, and Paul Cézanne, Fauve artists favored vibrant colors and winding gestural strokes across the canvas.
Daubigny’s Garden: The Mystery of Gogh’s Gone Black Cat
Paul Gauguin: Cats Paintings, One Summer with Gogh, and Tahiti

Henri Matisse Still Life with Red Carpet (1904) (French Galleries)
Matisse proved color could project a mood and establish a structure within the work of art without having to be true to the natural world. Henri Matisse Artwork is the expression of human essential emotions.
Henri Matisse quotes (goodreads)
Get your copy on Amazon: Matisse in the StudioThis book is the first in English to explore the essential role that Henri Matisse’s personal collection of objects played in his studio practice.
Influence of North African, Persian, Japanese Art

Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954) – Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Background, 1925-1926 (Pinterest)
Matisse was heavily influenced by art from other cultures.
Having seen several exhibitions of Asian art, and having traveled to North Africa, he incorporated some of the decorative qualities of Islamic art, the angularity of African sculpture, and the flatness of Japanese prints into his own style.
Henri Matisse Artwork is the mixture of different culture and his attitude for life.
Henri Matisse quotes (goodreads)
Joy of Life (Le Bonheur de Vivre) (1905-06)

Joy of Life (Bonheur de Vivre), 1905 by Henri Matisse (www.HenriMatisse.org)
Depicting an Arcadian landscape filled with brilliantly colored forest, meadow, sea, and sky and populated by nude figures both at rest and in motion.
As with the earlier Fauve canvases, color is responsive only to emotional expression and the formal needs of the canvas, not the realities of nature.
Matisse constructs the landscape so that it functions as a stage. Trees are planted at the sides and in the far distance, and their upper boughs are spread apart like curtains, highlighting the figures lounging beneath.
You can see the influences of the North African, Persian miniatures, Japanese woodcuts here.

Matisse portrait (MUSÉE DE L’ORANGERIE)
Henri Matisse quotes (goodreads)
Get your copy on Amazon: Matisse (Basic Art Series 2.0) by Volkmar Essers (Author)The work of Henri Matisse (1869—1954) reflects an ongoing belief in the power of brilliant colors and simple forms. From vast patterned panels to simple and tender portraits, this book introduces the full reach and creativity of Matisse’s career.
The Cut-Outs
, Final Years

Henri Matisse Icaro (Didatticarte)
In 1947, he published the book Jazz, which placed his own thoughts on life and art side by side with lively images of colored paper cutouts. This project led him to devise works and produced Swimming Pool (1952).
Matisse once wrote in a letter I have the mastery of it, I am sure of it
. Matisse almost reinvented color in painting had by now found freedom in the simplicity of decoration.
Henri Matisse Artwork saw its culminated point.
Henri Matisse quotes (goodreads)

Henri Matisse Swimming Pool (MoMA)

Henri Matisse La Gerbe 1953 (Tilton Fenwick)
Henri Matisse quotes(goodreads)
Get your copy on Amazon: Henri Matisse: The Cut-OutsRichly illustrated to present the cut-outs in all of their vibrancy and luminosity, the book includes an introduction and a conservation essay that consider the cut-outs from new theoretical and technical perspectives, and five thematic essays.
Matisse died on November 3, 1954, at the age of 84, in Nice. He was buried in nearby Cimiez. La Gerbe (The Theaf) above, multicolored leaves that resemble a spray of flowers, was completed a few months before his death, but it explodes with life.
He is still regarded as one of the most innovative and influential artists of the 20th century. Henri Matisse Artwork never loses its attraction.

Henri Matisse (cmc éditions)
Pablo Picasso Quotes (Art Quotes)
Get your copy on Amazon: Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Conquest of Colour, 1909-1954 by Hilary Spurling (Author)“If my story were ever to be written down truthfully from start to finish, it would amaze everyone,” wrote Henri Matisse. Hilary Spurling documents a lifetime of desperation and self-doubt exacerbated by Matisse’s attempts to counteract the violence and disruption of the twentieth century in paintings that now seem effortlessly serene, radiant, and stable.
References
Fauvism (THE ART STORY)
Dance by Matisse: From the History of the Mural (Modern Art Consulting)
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Also published on Medium.
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