Matisse was born in Le Cateau-Cambresis, northern France, on 31 December 1868 and died in Nice on 3 November 1954. He originally studied law in Paris, from 1887-9, returning home to work as a law clerk. He also attended early-morning classes at a local art school.
In 1890 he was bed ridden for an extended period after appendicitis. His mother bought him some oil paints and he began to paint during his recovery. He persuaded his father to let him study art and moved to Paris, where he enrolled at the Academie Julian.
Matisse was unimpressed by the tuition, however, so unofficially joined the studio of the Symbolist painter Gustav Moreau at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1895. Matisse made copies of many paintings in the Louvre, to learn and to supplement his allowance.
Matisse made his professional debut at the age of 27, in 1896 at the Salon de la societe nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 1898 he married Amelie Parayre, who supported him financially for many years (she was a milliner).
In 1905 the work of a group show at the Salon d'Automne that included Matisse and Derain, was dubbed by the art critic Louis Vauxcelles the Fauves (wild beasts) because of the intense colors, abstracted subjects, and wild brushwork.
Matisse was far more than just a Fauvist. He was always challenging himself. In his old age, he worked with painted paper and scissors, making collages. Between 1948-51, he decorated a chapel in Vence, designing stained-glass windows and black-and-white line drawings on tiles.
For painters, Matisse is important for the way he used color and pattern, his need to experiment (with among other things Cubism and Pointillism), his influence on the work of Picasso (and Picasso on Matisse's), and for living a life devoted to his passion.
More on Matisse:
- Matisse Quotes
- Matisse Museum, Nice
- Matisse and Picasso
- Paintings in Pompidou, Moma, and Tate
