HENRI MATISSE
Matisse Henri Emile Benois(12/31/1869, Le Cateau, Picardy, - 11/3/1954, Simiez, near Nice), french painter, graphic artist and sculptor.
The color effect of Matisse's paintings is extremely strong; the reaction is, however, negative, but always very intense. His paintings are sonorous, loud fanfare, sometimes deafening. They no longer cause calm admiration, but visual paroxysms, this is not a “holiday of the eye”, but an unbridled orgy.
By what means does Matisse achieve such a strong color effect? First of all, extremely emphasized color contrasts. Let's leave the word to the artist himself: “In my painting “Music”, the sky is painted in beautiful blue, the bluest of blues, the plane is painted with a color so saturated that blue is fully manifested, the idea of absolute blue; pure greenery was taken for the trees, ringing cinnabar for the bodies. A special feature: the form was modified according to the influence of neighboring color planes, because the expression depends on the color surface covered by the viewer as a whole.
Having received a law degree, he worked as a lawyer (1889-1891). He studied in Paris - at the Julian Academy (since 1891) with A. V. Bugro, at the School decorative arts(since 1893) and at the School of Fine Arts (1895-99) with G. Moreau; copied works of old French and Dutch masters. He was influenced by neo-impressionism (mainly P. Signac), P. Gauguin, the art of the Arab East, to a certain extent - ancient Russian icon painting (he was one of the first in the West to appreciate its artistic merits; in 1911 he visited Moscow). After getting acquainted with the work of the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and the English painter J. Turner, A. Matisse begins to use more saturated colors, preferring light colors ("Bois de Boulogne", ca. 1902, Pushkin Museum, Moscow; "Luxembourg Garden", ca. 1902, Hermitage , Saint Petersburg). He was greatly influenced by the art of P. Cezanne (“Nude. Servant”, 1900, Museum contemporary art, NY; "Dishes on the table", 1900, Hermitage, St. Petersburg).
In 1905-07 the leader of Fauvism. In the famous Parisian autumn Salon of 1905, together with his new friends, he exhibited a number of works, among them "The Woman in the Green Hat". These works, which made a scandalous sensation, laid the foundation for Fauvism. At this time, Matisse discovers the sculpture of the peoples of Africa, begins to collect it, is interested in classical Japanese woodcuts and Arabic decorative art. By 1906, he completed work on the composition Joy of Life, the plot of which was inspired by the poem The Afternoon of a Faun by S. Mallarme: the plot combines motifs of pastoralism and orgy. The first lithographs, woodcuts, ceramics appear; continues to improve the drawing, made mainly with pen, pencil and charcoal. In the graphics of Matisse, the arabesque is combined with a subtle transfer of the sensual charm of nature.
Starting from the 2nd half of the 1900s, Matisse approves a new type artistic expressiveness, using a laconic, sharp and at the same time flexible drawing, a sharply rhythmic composition, a contrasting combination of few color zones, but intensely bright and local (panels for S.I. Shchukin's mansion in Moscow "Dance" and "Music", both - 1910 , Hermitage, Leningrad), sometimes rich in shades of one basic tone, translucent and not hiding the texture of the canvas ("Artist's Workshop", 1911, Museum fine arts named after A. S. Pushkin, Moscow).
In 1908-1912, Matisse, using almost exclusively pure color (in rare cases he uses transitions, mixed tones), builds his paintings on three primary tones. "Satyr and Nymph" - the consonance of green, pink and blue, "Dance" - blue, green and red, still lifes are built on the consonances of lilac, yellow and red or blue, purple and pink. Then, around 1912, he moves on to the four sounds of colors, and one of the four tones in the picture is given a very small place: "Tangier" - blue, orange, pink, red, "On the terrace" - purple, green, pink, blue. “Entrance to the Kazba” - crimson, blue, green, pale pink. In later years, he resorted to more complex combinations and significantly expanded his palette, introducing a greater variety of shades.
Here it is important to reveal the meaning of Matisse's words about the interaction of pure tones. Speaking of shades, Matisse, of course, does not mean gradations of saturation of tone - whites, which are also possible when using pure color (in Italian and Russian primitives). He also does not seem to have in mind the imaginary shades that the viewer must perceive when saturated color planes collide, a kind of echo of the neo-impressionist theory of optical color mixing. This vibration is too slight, and the sensation of intermediate shades is transient. Here we are obviously talking about the need to introduce transitional tones, to which Matisse came later.
Working in pure color, Matisse, like any painter, wants to avoid monotony - the antithesis of picturesqueness, but he does not always succeed, and some of his things are characterized by monotony (panel "Music"). On the other hand, in the 10s, he wants to keep the purity of color without fail. Avoiding mixing colors, he resorts to a technique similar to the glazing of the old masters, laying on dark paint lighter, for example, on pink - white, on blue - lilac, etc. Then, to make the paint vibrate, he vigorously rubs it into the canvas, instead of using white, makes it shine through.
The incessant work on the drawing allowed Matisse to become a virtuoso of the brush. The contours in his paintings are confidently drawn with a single stroke. His paintings are often similar (especially in reproductions) to brush drawings. Their effect often rests on a masterful, bold touch.
Sometimes he uses layers of different density (for example, in “Girl with Tulips”), pushing one color forward at the expense of another. However, a number of works of 1912 are painted with a smooth, monotonous texture. If the surface of some Matisse paintings may seem dry and monotonous, then this indicates not a disregard for the material of painting, unthinkable for a great artist, but a peculiar fear of violence against the material. For Matisse, as a decorative artist, the unity of the picture with its base, the canvas, the whiteness and structure of which is taken into account by him in the same way as the muralist takes into account the surface of the wall, is especially important. But, remembering the basis, Matisse sometimes forgets about the paint itself, about specific features and possibilities of oil painting.
Of particular importance is the technique of incompleteness of details, which is especially noticeable in “The Moroccan”, “The Ball Game” and other things; the color in those places that the artist wanted to drown out is not taken more dull, but a blank canvas is left (which is sometimes done to bring out the light), or the detail is left unfinished (mostly the arms, legs, etc.). Matisse limited himself to matte, liquid painting and did not pay much attention to questions of texture. This is an undoubted gap in his work, especially if we compare his long-term hard work over color contrasts, sort of scientific work on the study of the psychophysical reaction to a particular color contrast. Matisse is not satisfied with the system of additional tones discovered by Delacroix, reduced to a system by the Impressionists. He is looking for dissonances, screaming, sharp harmonies; here a parallel with the contemporary music of Stravinsky, Strauss, and others is possible. Like these composers, he is affected by anxiety, psychological instability, and the excessive acuteness of the feelings of the modern bourgeois.
In the restrained and severe manner of the works of Matisse in the 2nd half of the 10s, the influence of cubism is noticeable ("Music Lesson", 1916-17, Museum of Modern Art, New York); the works of the 20s, on the contrary, are distinguished by the vital immediacy of motives, color diversity, and softness of writing (the Odalisques series). In the 30-40s, Matisse, as it were, sums up the discoveries of previous periods, combining the search for free decorativeness of the time of Fauvism with an analytically clear construction of the composition (frieze in the Barnes Museum "Dance", 1931-32, Merion, Philadelphia, USA), with subtly nuanced color system ("Plum tree branch", 1948, private collection, New York).
The work of Matisse as a whole has a number of common features. In an effort to counter the turbulent tension of life in the 20th century Eternal values being, he recreates its festive side - the world of endless dance, serene peace of idyllic scenes, patterned carpets and fabrics, sparkling fruits, vases, bronzes, vessels and figurines. The goal of Matisse is to captivate the viewer into this sphere of ideal images and dreams, to convey to him a sense of peace or a vague, but bewitching anxiety. The emotional impact of his painting is achieved primarily by the ultimate saturation colors, the musicality of linear rhythms that create the effect of internal movement of forms, and finally, the complete subordination of all components of the picture, for which the object sometimes turns into a kind of arabesque, a clot of pure color ("Red Fish", 1911; "Still Life with a Shell", 1940; both works - in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts).
Matisse achieves integrity and, at the same time, pictorial diversity, first of all, by realizing a genuine and organic connection between color and form - linear-planar. Color so predominates over form in him that it can be considered the true content of his paintings, and everything else is just a function of dazzling, powerful color. Drawing as such in Matisse was always subordinated to the quality of his color, the development of the line went parallel to the development of his pictorial qualities. During the period of the first searches, it is somewhat sluggish and approximate (“Dinner Table”), its drawing gradually becomes more and more sharp and expressive. Matisse paints a lot and tirelessly from nature, there are hundreds of his drawings, he is a true virtuoso of drawing. His skill is clearly evident in any of his lively, impetuous sketches of models. Remarkable, first of all, is the accuracy with which he places the figure on the sheet, immediately finding a correspondence between its proportions and the plane of the paper. Even his sketches are compositional; they usually fit into an expressive arabesque that cuts the plane diagonally. A piece of nature by a receptive artist seems to be immediately transformed into a play of decorative spots and strokes; at the same time, however, vitality is not diminished at all, rather it is sharply emphasized. Without thinking about the details, Matisse grasps the very axis of movement, ingeniously generalizes the curves of the body, gives integrity and regularity to the articulation of forms. Matisse's drawings are so sharp, dynamic, simplified and concise, their plasticity is so peculiar that they cannot be mixed with any other works of famous draftsmen of his time. In liveliness and spontaneity, they are not inferior to Japanese ones, in decorativeness - to Persian miniatures, in expressiveness of lines - to Delacroix's drawings. Moreover, they are not based on “virtuosity”, not a predilection for spectacular strokes - they are constructive in the true sense, because they reveal the plastic form with full persuasiveness.
Henri Matisse (fr. Henri Matisse; December 31, 1869, Le Cateau-Cambresy, Nord, France (Second French Empire) - November 3, 1954, Nice, France) - French artist and sculptor, leader of the Fauvist movement. Known for his research in conveying emotions through color and form.
Biography of Antri Matisse
Henri Emile Benoît Matisse (fr. Henri Émile Benoît Matisse) was born on December 31, 1869 in the town of Le Cateau Cambrésy, in Picardy in northern France. He was the eldest son of Emile Hippolyte Matisse and Heloise Anna Gerard. His childhood years were spent in the nearby town of Boen-en-Vermandois, where his father, a prosperous grain merchant, kept a shop. Mother helped her father in the shop and painted ceramics.
Henri, having studied from 1882 to 1887 in high school and the Lycée Henri Martin in the town of Saint-Quentin, went to Paris to study law at the School of Legal Sciences.
In August 1888, after graduation, young Henri received the right to work in his specialty. He returned to Saint-Quentin and took a job as a clerk for a barrister.
In 1889, Henri had an attack of appendicitis. When he recovered from the operation, his mother bought him art supplies.
Henri first began painting by copying colored postcards during a two-month stay in the hospital.
This fascinated him so much that, overcoming the resistance of his father, he decided to become an artist and enrolled in the drawing school of Quentin de la Tour (Fr. Ecole Quentin de la Tour), where draftsmen for the textile industry were trained.
In 1891 he left legal practice and again came to Paris, where he entered the Académie Julian. Henri studied with the famous master of salon art, William Adolphe Bouguereau, preparing for the entrance exams to the School of Fine Arts (fr. École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris), where, however, he did not enter.
In 1893 he moved to the School of Decorative Arts (English) Russian. (French École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs de Paris), where he met the young Albert Marquet. In 1895, both passed the entrance exams to the School of Fine Arts and were accepted into the studio of Gustave Moreau, with whom they studied as invited students from 1893. Here Henri met Georges Rouault, Charles Camouin, Charles Manguin and Henri Evenepoel.
In 1894, a significant event took place in the artist's personal life. His model Caroline Joblau (fr. Caroline Joblau) gave birth to a daughter, Marguerite (1894-1982).
He spent the summer of 1896 on the island of Belle Île off the coast of Brittany, with Émile Bury, a neighbor on the landing in Paris.
On January 10, 1898, Henri Matisse married Amélie Pareyre (fr. Amélie Noellie Parayre), who gave birth to his sons Jean-Gerard (1899-1976) and Pierre (1900-1989). His illegitimate daughter, Margarita, was also taken into the family. His wife and daughter were the artist's favorite models.
Experiencing serious financial difficulties, he took a job as a decorative artist. Together with Albert Marquet, he decorated objects for world exhibition at the Grand Palais, Paris in 1900. The work was exhausting, and Henri fell ill with bronchitis. In 1901, after a short treatment in Switzerland, where he continued to work hard, Henri spent some time with his family at his parents in Boen-en-Vermandois. In those days, the artist was so upset that he even thought of giving up painting.
Creativity Matisse
The search for oneself, personal author's style is necessary condition development for any talented brush master. Sooner or later, each of the great artists found their own unique methods and techniques inherent in his individual manner, guided by the formed personal understanding of the role of painting and their own vision of the world around them. But from every rule there must be exceptions that only confirm this rule. One such exception was the famous painter Henri Matisse.
The creativity of this person cannot be characterized within the framework of any particular direction, since he constantly went beyond any limits that limited him, again and again rushing to where no one had gone before.
All his life, Henri Matisse was in a non-stop search. In an effort to achieve the most effective and at the same time harmonious expression, he changed his artistic tools and changed himself.
Parade, Platanes 
Polynesia, La Mer 
Red Interior. Still Life on a Blue Table
The museum in Nice, dedicated to the life and work of the master, opens the eyes of surprised visitors to painting and drawing, stained-glass windows and ceramics, sculpture and paper collages. In each of these areas and in a number of others, Henri Matisse was able to express his special word, which left a bright mark in art.
The influence of impressionism and divisionism, their own experiments with color contrasts had a very strong effect on early works artist. His paintings and those of his comrades Vlaminck, Derain, Rouault and Marquet, exhibited at the Autumn Salon of 1905, were called "wild" by critics, hence the name of the new direction - "fauvism".
Subsequently, Henri Matisse, under the influence of various impressions, repeatedly changed his style, manner and technique, mastered new means of creative self-expression. A number of successful acquaintances, including those with Picasso and the Russian collector Shchukin, helped him improve financial situation, and the artist made several trips.
In Morocco, he became interested in oriental decorative patterns and ornaments, in Munich experienced strong feelings at an exhibition of works of Islamic art, in Russia he was shocked by icons, in Tahiti he admired flower arrangements.
However, every time, submitting for a while to a new strong impression, Matisse absorbed it like a sponge, and then creatively processed it in accordance with his own worldview.
Henri Matisse always felt the power in color to emphasize the feeling. In his works, he made the color emit a glow and rhythmic dance pulsation. Striving for the maximum expression of the whole, the artist removed all irrelevant details and simplified forms to the utmost, considering everything that did not directly affect the emotional and energy impulse to be harmful and unnecessary.
Many of his compositions seem deceptively simple, but behind each of them is a titanic creative work that creates an amazing tension of this "screaming" simplicity.
IN last years life with the help of ordinary colored paper and scissors, Henri Matisse created applications that produced a stunning effect of symphonic color sounding, rhythmic musicality of lines and absolute compositional harmony.
After the death of the artist, Pablo Picasso briefly and succinctly described his work with one phrase: "Matisse has always been the one and only."
One of Matisse's paintings - "Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose" - in February 2009 was acquired by a private collector during an auction at Christie's auction house for 32 million euros. The still life was created by the artist in 1911.
Roser Chapel (Vence, France) is often called the Matisse Chapel (Chapelle Matisse). The fact is that it was built in 1949-1951 according to the design of Henri Matisse. The artist was asked about this by the former model Monique, and then by sister Jacques-Marie, who became a nun. Matisse made stained-glass windows, decorated the hall of the chapel, made sketches of church clothes.
Collioure (France) - the birthplace of Fauvism. It was here that the first paintings of the new direction of painting were drawn. Pablo Picasso, Albert Marquet, Raoul Dufy, as well as Marc Chagall and others have been here famous artists. Colliure they chose because of the light and color. “There is no bluer sky than in Collioure,” said Henri Matisse.
The Hotel Golden Dove in Saint-Paul-de-Vence breathes incredible stories and legends about celebrities. According to rumors, one day Henri Matisse arrived at the Dove very tired, and he was served a cup of tea right in the car. The famous work of Henri Matisse "Tea in the Garden" (Tea in the Garden).
Henri Matisse - an outstanding French artist, leader of the Fauvist movement - is known for his masterful transmission in the color of exquisite emotions and feelings. The world of Matisse is a world of dances and pastorals, beautiful vases, juicy fruits, greenhouse plants, carpets and colorful fabrics, bronze figurines and endless landscapes. His style is distinguished by the flexibility of lines, sometimes intermittent, sometimes rounded, conveying a variety of silhouettes and shapes, moods and motifs. refined artistic means, coloristic harmonies, combining bright contrasting harmonies, as if calling the contemplator of these works to enjoy the sensual beauty of the world.
Matisse's painting is said to be musical. The artist's art was often given definitions of "secular" and "salon", seeing in the festivity and elegance of his paintings a direct impact of the tastes of wealthy patrons. Reproached for isolation from reality, decadence, misunderstanding contemporary problems. Indeed, with rare exceptions, you will not see nondescript everyday motifs in his paintings. Henri tried to capture something completely different: well-dressed women in a beautiful elegant setting, lush bouquets of flowers, bright carpets.
Henri Matisse Dance
The future artist came to the world, which he would later sing with such love with the help of a brush and paints, just before the onset of the New Year - December 31, 1869 in Cato-Cambresy, in northern France. The father wanted his son to get on his feet as soon as possible, he saw in him a lawyer, a wealthy person, but his desires remained a dream. True, after graduating from the Lyceum Saint-Quentin, Matisse still had to study law in Paris. For the first time he tried his hand at painting while in the hospital, where he ended up with appendicitis. There was a lot of free time, Henri made a drawing, another one and ... the work fascinated him. At the age of 20, he began to study in art school Ventine de la Tour, and in 1891 went to Paris, where he entered the School of Fine Arts. At the same time, against the will of his father, Matisse left law and completely settled in Paris, enrolling in the Julian Academy and taking lessons from the master french painting Gustave Moreau.
A mystic and symbolist, Moreau predicted a great future for the novice artist, especially appreciating his innovative techniques in unexpected color combinations. Painting takes time and money. The family is growing: at the turn of two centuries, the artist's sons are born - Jean and Pierre. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Matisse's marriage was extremely happy: Amelie Matisse, devoted to the artist, worked hard so that her husband could only engage in creativity. This beautiful woman is depicted on many canvases of the master; most notable works- "Woman in a Hat" and "Portrait of a Wife". Amelie did everything possible to make Henri travel more, see the world, absorb its colors. Together, the couple go to Algeria, where Matisse gets acquainted with the art of the East, which had a great influence on him. Hence, in his work - the predominance of color over form, variegation and patterning, stylization in the development of objects.
The search for a direct transmission of sensations with the help of intense color, a simplified drawing and a planar image was reflected in the works presented at the Fauvist exhibition at the Paris Autumn Salon of 1905. At this time, Matisse discovers the sculpture of the peoples of Africa, is interested in classical Japanese woodcuts and decorative Arabic art.
In 1908 Russian collector Sergey Shchukin orders the artist three decorative panels for own house in Moscow. The work "Dance" (1910) presents an ecstatic dance, inspired by the impressions of the Russian seasons of Sergei Diaghilev, the performances of Isadora Aunkan and Greek vase painting. In "Music" figures of artists playing various instruments are given. The third panel - "Bathing, or Meditation" - remained only in outline. The paintings from the Shchukin collection, “cut off” by the war from the rest of the world, were confiscated by the state after the revolution, lay locked up in Soviet cellars throughout the middle of the 20th century and saw the light only after the death of Stalin (and Matisse himself).
It cannot be said that the artistic beau monde accepted the work of Matisse unambiguously positively. For example, Pablo Picasso did not perceive the French painter at all and saw him as his rival. Igor Stravinsky recalls: “What is Matisse? Pablo liked to repeat. “A balcony with a bright flower pot on it.”
Unlike Picasso, Matisse had to face the opposition of his father, who was ashamed all his life that his son decided to become an artist. For many years Matisse lived in poverty. He was about forty when he was finally able to provide for his family on his own. Henri sought in the art of calm and stability, which life could not give him; Pablo, on the contrary, shook the foundations of the world.
When they met in 1906, Picasso was 25 years old, he had just arrived from Spain, he barely spoke French, and practically no one in Paris knew him. 3b-year-old Matisse was already recognized as a first-class artist at that time. The first painting that Matisse presented to Picasso in 1907 was a portrait of Henri's daughter, Marguerite. Picasso hung the work in his studio and invited his friends to use it as a target for playing "darts".
Matisse was strongly influenced by Islamic art, presented at an exhibition in Munich in 1911. Two winters spent by the artist in Morocco (1912 and 1913) further enriched him with knowledge of oriental motifs, and long life on the Riviera contributed to the development of a vibrant palette. Unlike the masters of cubism, Matisse's work was not speculative, it was based on a scrupulous study of nature and the laws of painting. All these canvases depicting female figures, still lifes and landscapes are the result of a long study of natural forms. It can be said that Matisse succeeded in harmoniously expressing the immediate emotional sensation of reality in the strictest art form. An excellent draftsman, he was par excellence a colorist, achieving the effect of coordinating the sound of several intense colors. For example, in the painting “Luxury, Peace and Voluptuousness”, the Art Nouveau style is combined with a dotted, typical for pointillism, style of writing. In the future, the color energy increases, there is an interest in expression ( favorite word Matisse), colorful halos, coloristic elaboration within the pictorial composition.
The color effect of Matisse's paintings on the viewer is incredible; the colors call and scream like loud fanfares. Color contrasts are sharply highlighted and emphasized. Here is what the artist himself says: “In my painting “Music”, the sky is written in beautiful blue, the bluest of blues, the plane is painted with a color so saturated that blue is fully manifested, the idea of \u200b\u200babsolute blue; pure greenery was taken for trees, and sonorous vermilion for human bodies. For expression depends on the color surface covered by the viewer as a whole.
In the works of Matisse, color prevails over the drawing so much that one can say: it is he, the color, who is the true hero of the content of the paintings. Like creative method was characteristic not only of Matisse, but also of Fauvism in general. One critic wrote of the Fauvists: "They threw a can of paint in the face of the public." Matisse, in one of his essays, retorts: "The colors in the picture should excite the senses to the very depths, no matter what the critics say." No wonder Guillaume Apollinaire exclaimed: “If the work of Matisse needed comparison, one should take an orange. Matisse is a fruit of dazzling color.
Henri Matisse: matisse46
Henri Matisse: Les voiliers
Remarkable is the accuracy with which he builds a composition on canvas. Matisse captures the very axis of movement, giving the drawing wholeness and regularity. His sketches are so sharp, dynamic, lapidary and at the same time plastic that they cannot be confused with the work of other draftsmen - they are immediately recognizable!
French Art Nouveau artists were not indifferent to dance. The graceful ballerinas of Degas, the prima cabaret of Toulouse-Lautrec - various incarnations of the fashionable dance theme. Henri Matisse was no exception. And although realism is alien to the images of Matisse, and his decorative canvases have little in common with the reliable image of ballerinas on pointe shoes, the theme of dance invariably appears in turning points creative path.
Henri Matisse: Matisse Icarus (Icare), 1943-1944, From Jazz
Henri Matisse: Matisse Music, 1910, oil on canvas, The Hermitage at St. Pet
The panel "Parisian dance" was conceived by Matisse in his declining years. Nevertheless, the work is considered one of the most daring and innovative. Especially for this order, the author invented and developed an original technique - decoupage (translated from French - "cutting"). Like a giant puzzle, the picture was assembled from separate fragments. From the sheets, previously painted with gouache, the maestro cut out figures and pieces of the background with scissors with his own hands, then, according to the drawing marked with charcoal, he attached them to the base with pins ... The "Parisian dance" is known in three versions. The earliest, unfinished version is essentially a preparatory study. With the second, almost completed work, an unfortunate story came out: Matisse made a mistake in the size of the room, and the entire canvas had to be rewritten again. The final version was approved by the client and successfully departed overseas. And the previous, “defective”, artist managed to finish, in 1936 he gave up the work for a modest fee to the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Today, the "Parisian Dance" is rightly considered the pearl of the collection of this museum - it is no coincidence that a special hall was built to exhibit the giant canvas. Another interesting detail: in the process of working on the Parisian Dance, Henri Matisse had to visit Moscow, where, along with the poet Valery Bryusov and the artist Valentin Serov, who discovered the beauty of Russian icons for Matisse, from which the French painter was delighted, he met Lydia Aelektorskaya. This simple Russian girl was destined to go down in history - she became a secretary, then an indispensable assistant, and after that - the closest friend and last muse artist. In October 1933, Lydia Lelectorskaya moved into Matisse's house and stayed there for almost 22 years.
About his impression of Russia, Matisse wrote: “Yesterday I saw a collection of old icons. Here is the true great art. I am in love with their touching simplicity, which is closer to me and more expensive than paintings Fra Angelico. In these icons, like a mystical flower, the soul of the artists is revealed. And we need to learn from them the understanding of art.”
First World War, which left a deep mark on the soul of Matisse, changed him artistic manner. The coloring of the paintings becomes gloomy, and the drawing becomes almost schematic. Since 1918, the artist has been living in Nice almost without a break, occasionally visiting Paris. Joyful, bright colors will not return to his painting soon ... In numerous compositions of this period, among which the most famous are "Persian Dress", "Music" (1939), "Romanian Blouse" (1940), the artist again affirms the principles of "pure painting ". Written in careless strokes, these paintings created a joyful but deceptive impression - as if they were painted easily, the first time, as a result of a happy and careless inspiration. But in fact, each of the master's creations is the result of painstaking searches, hard work, and enormous moral and physical stress. Not distinguished by good health, suffering from insomnia, Matisse denied himself many pleasures in order to maintain the ability to work. Creating a picture, he forgot about everything in the world.
Henri Matisse: Matisse Jazz- The Toboggan, 1943, paper cut-outs
The artist continues to create even in the most difficult time for him. Since 1941, he has been seriously ill, his wife and daughter were arrested by the Gestapo for participating in the resistance movement, Matisse for a long time knows nothing of their fate. In recent years, Henri works more as an illustrator, is fond of collages. With what delight he wrote out the patterns of oriental carpets, how carefully he achieved exact, harmonious color ratios! Gorgeous, full of mysterious inner light and his still lifes, portraits of the late period. This is no longer an intimate painting, it acquires a cosmic sound. Forced to give up oil work, unable to hold a brush and palette in his hands, the artist developed a technique for composing an image from scraps of colored paper. In 1948-53, commissioned by the Dominican Order, Matisse worked on the construction and decoration of the Rosary Chapel in Vence. Above the ceramic roof depicting the sky with clouds, an openwork cross hovers; above the entrance to the chapel is a ceramic panel depicting St. Dominic and Virgin Mary. Other panels, made according to the sketches of the master, are placed in the interior; the artist is extremely stingy with details, restless black lines dramatically tell of the Last Judgment (western wall of the chapel); next to the altar is an image of Dominic himself. This latest work Matisse, to which he gave great importance, - a synthesis of many previous searches - adequately completed his artistic path. However, Matisse painted to the last, even at night, even after a heart attack, the day before his death, November 3, 1954, he asked for a pencil and made three portrait sketches.
The artist, fortunately, had a long and intense creative life - in a world full of catastrophes, technical, scientific and social revolutions. This world was deafening, it changed with a truly explosive speed, and Matisse overturned all the usual ideas, piled up ruins, multiplied discoveries, searched for new forms of being in art. Searched and found!
Henri Matisse: Odalisque in red bloomers)
