Henri MatisseHenri Matisse (1869–1954), French painter. Born December 31, 1869 in Le Cateau in northern France. In 1892 he came to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian, and later with Gustave Moreau. The search for a direct transfer of sensations with the help of intense color, a simplified drawing and a planar image was reflected in the works presented by him at the exhibition of "wild" (fauvists) at the Autumn Salon of 1905. He exhibits a number of works. 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, and ceramics appear. In the graphics of Matisse, the arabesque is combined with a subtle transfer of the sensual charm of nature. In 1907 Matisse travels to Italy (Venice, Padua, Florence, Siena). In "Notes of a Painter" (1908), he formulates his artistic principles, speaks of the need for "emotions through simple means." Students from different countries appear in the workshop of Henri Matisse.
"Self-portrait" 1918, Matisse Museum, Le Cate-Cambrai, FranceIn 1908, S. I. Shchukin ordered three decorative panels from the artist for his own house in Moscow. The panel "Dance" (1910, Hermitage) presents an ecstatic dance, inspired by the impressions of S. Diaghilev's Russian seasons, performances by Isadora Duncan and Greek vase painting. In "Music" Matisse presents isolated figures singing and playing various instruments. The third panel - "Bathing, or Meditation" - remained only in outline. Exhibited at the Paris Salon before sending them to Russia, Matisse's compositions caused a scandal with the shocking nudity of the characters and the unexpected interpretation of the images. In connection with the installation of the panel, Matisse visited Moscow, gave several interviews for newspapers and expressed admiration for ancient Russian painting. In the painting "Red Fish" (1911, Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), using the techniques of elliptical and reverse perspectives, the echo of tones and the contrast of green and red, Matisse creates the effect of circling fish in a glass vessel. In the winter months from 1911 to 1913, the artist visits Tangier (Morocco), creates a Moroccan triptych "View from the window in Tangier", "Zora on the terrace" and "Entrance to the kazba" (1912, ibid.), acquired by I. A. Morozov. Masterfully conveyed the effects of blue shadows and blinding rays of the sun.
"Dishes and fruits" 1901 Hermitage
John McLaughlin - "The Peacocks" ("The Promise")
"Woman with a Hat" (Portrait of a Wife) 1904 - Presented at the 1905 Salon.
"Still life with vase, bottle and fruit" 1903-1906 Hermitage
"Square in Saint-Tropez" 1904 Museum of Art, Copenhagen
"Window" 1916 Art Institute, Detroit
"Raised knee" 1922, Private collection
After the First World War, Matisse mainly lived in Nice. In 1920 he performed sketches of scenery and costumes for I. Stravinsky's ballet The Nightingale (choreography by L. Massine, production by S. Diaghilev). Under the influence of the painting of O. Renoir, whom Matisse met in Nice, he is fond of depicting models in light robes (the cycle of "odalisques"); interested in Rococo masters. In 1930 he traveled to Tahiti, working on two versions of decorative panels for the Barnes Foundation in Merion (Philadelphia), which were to be placed above the high windows of the main exhibition hall. The theme of the panel is dance. Eight figures are presented on a background consisting of pink and blue stripes, the figures themselves are of a grayish-pink tone. The compositional solution is deliberately flat, decorative.
In the process of creating sketches, Matisse began to use the technique of cutting out colored paper (“decoupage”), which he widely used later (for example, in the Jazz series, 1944-47, later reproduced in lithographs). Before the Second World War, Matisse illustrated books produced in small editions (engraving or lithography). For Diaghilev's productions, he sketches the scenery for the ballet "Red and Black" to the music of D. Shostakovich. He works a lot and fruitfully with plastic, continuing the traditions of A. Bari, O. Rodin, E. Degas and A. E. Bourdelle. His painting style is noticeably simplified; drawing as the basis of the composition is revealed more and more definitely (“Romanian blouse”, 1940, Center for Contemporary Art named after J. Pompidou). In 1948-53, commissioned by the Dominican Order, he 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 - 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 last work of Matisse, to which he attached great importance, is a synthesis of many of his previous searches. Matisse worked in different genres and types of art and used a variety of techniques. In plastic, as well as in graphics, he preferred to work in series (for example, four versions of the relief "Standing with her back to the viewer", 1930-40, Center for Contemporary Art named after J. Pompidou, Paris).
The world of Matisse is a world of dances and pastorales, music and musical instruments, beautiful vases, juicy fruits and greenhouse plants, various vessels, carpets and colorful fabrics, bronze figurines and endless views from the window (the artist's favorite motif). His style is distinguished by the flexibility of lines, sometimes intermittent, sometimes rounded, conveying a variety of silhouettes and outlines (“Themes and Variations”, 1941, charcoal, pen), clearly rhythmizing his strictly thought-out, mostly balanced compositions.
The laconicism of refined artistic means, coloristic harmonies, combining either bright contrasting harmonies, or the balance of local large spots and masses of color, serve the artist's main goal - to convey pleasure from the sensual beauty of external forms.
In addition, Matisse was strongly influenced by the works of Islamic art shown at the exhibition in Munich. Two winters spent by the artist in Morocco (1912 and 1913) enriched him with knowledge of oriental motifs, and a long life on the Riviera contributed to the development of a bright palette. Unlike contemporary cubism, Matisse's work was not speculative, but was based on a scrupulous study of nature and the laws of painting. His canvases depicting female figures, still lifes and landscapes may seem insignificant in subject matter, but are the result of a long study of natural forms and their bold simplification. Matisse managed to harmoniously express the immediate emotional sensation of reality in the most rigorous artistic form. An excellent draftsman, Matisse was a colorist par excellence, achieving the effect of coherent sound in the composition of many intense colors. Matisse died on November 3, 1954 in Cimiez, near Nice.Early still lifes by Matisse
"Still life" 1890
"Reading woman" 1894
"Studio of Gustave Moreau" 1895
"Servant" 1896
"Blue pot and lemon" 1897. Oil on canvas. Hermitage
"Dining table" 1897
"Fruit and coffee pot" 1899 Hermitage
"Self-portrait"
"Still life with oranges 1899"Workshop in the attic" 1903. Oil on canvas. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK
"The Happiness of Existence (Joy of Life)" 1905-06 Barnes Foundation, Lincoln University, Merion, Pennsylvania
"Sailor" 1906
Unusual portraits of Matisse
"Self-portrait" 1900 Cent im. Georges Pompidou
"Auguste Pellerin" (II) 1916
"Greta Mall" 1908, National Gallery, London
"Self-portrait in a striped shirt" 1906 GMI Copenhagen
"Portrait of the artist's wife" 1912-13 Hermitage
"Italian" 1916
"Aisha and Lorette" (Aicha and Lorette) 1917"White Feather" 1919
"Portrait of Sarah Stein" 1916In 1914, the best works of Matisse, which belonged to Michael and Sarah Stein, disappeared in Germany when they were exhibited in Berlin shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. Two years later, Matisse produced paired portraits of Michael and Sarah Stein, his most devoted early collectors, making up for the pieces they had lost in Berlin.
"Portrait of Michael Stein" 1916
"Tea in the garden" 1919
"Lorette with Cup of Coffee" 1917
"The figure on the background of the ornament" 1925-26. Center Pompidou, Paris
"Laurette in a white turban" 1916 Ch.k
"Ballerina, harmony in green" 1927. Ch."Greta Prozor" 1916
André Derain "Portrait of Henri Matisse" 1905"Portrait of Andre Derain" 1905. Oil on canvas Tate Gallery, London, UK
"Madame Matisse" 1907
"Sleep" 1935
More still life paintings by Matisse
"Blue tablecloth" 1909
"Greek torso with flowers" 1919
"Vase with oranges" 1916. Chek.
"Still life with a mirror""Interior with violin" 1917-18 GMI Copenhagen
And more portraits
"Woman in a hat with flowers" 1919"Ballerina" 1927 Otto Krebs Collection, Holtzdorf. Now in the Hermitage
"Girl in a blue blouse" (Portrait of Lydia Delektorskaya, the artist's assistant). 1939 Hermitage
"Girl in pink" 1942
"Girl in green with a carnation" 1909. Hermitage
"Portrait of Margarita" 1906-1907
"Girl with green eyes" 1908
"Three Sisters" 1916
"Music Lesson" 1917 Barnes Foundation, Lincoln University
"Lauret in a red dress" 1917"Yvonne Landsberg" 1914. Etching Philadelphia Museum of Art
"Lorette in a green dress, on a black background" 1916
Oriental themes in the painting of Matisse
"Harmony in red tones" 1908. Oil on canvas Hermitage
"Inhabitant of Tsora on the terrace" 1912 Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin
"Moorish room" 1923"Odalisque in red trousers" 1917
"Marabout" 1912
"Moroccan garden" 1912
"Moroccan in Greece" 1912-13. Hermitage
"Moorish woman with raised hands" 1923
"Odalisque with Magnolia" 1924"Conversation" 1909
"Odalisque with a tambourine" 1926
"Nude on a blue pillow" 1924 Ch.K.
"Asia" 1946
"Blue nude with hair in the wind" 1952
"Blue Nude. Remembrance of Biskra" 1907
This picture was painted after a visit to Algeria. In its incomprehensible execution, brutal configuration and twisted pose, this painting is one of the key works in his career and in Western art in general.
"Woman with an umbrella" 1905
"Two girls" 1941
"Outline of Notre Dame at night" 1902
"Luxury, peace and pleasure" 1904 Center Georges Pompidou, Paris
Drawings by Matisse
"Portrait of a Woman" 1945
"Portrait of Ilya Ehrenburg"
"Portrait of a Woman with Loose Hair"
"Woman in profile"Henri Matisse
Original entry and comments on
) that have become inseparable from modern art, but no one is more closely associated with the carnal pleasure of color than Henri Matisse(1869-1954). A friend and friendly rival of Picasso, he was temperamentally the antipode of the Spanish artist. While Picasso's paintings and sculptures were characterized by the presence of angles and the shock of the new (at least during his cubic period), the work of Matisse was distinguished by the presence of sinuous curves, originating in traditional fine art. Originally trained as a lawyer, Matisse painted while working as a clerk and eventually became a full-fledged artist. During his career, he created some of the greatest masterpieces of the 20th century. These include sculpture and ceramics, but in most people's minds Matisse will always be associated with his paintings. Although his stylistic shifts were not as pronounced as those of Picasso, his art underwent a significant evolution as it developed. In doing so, he has always focused on enticing entertainment with pigments and shades. "I'm not a revolutionary on principle," he once said. "What I dream about is an art of balance, purity and serenity, devoid of disturbing or depressing objects ... Soothing, soothing the mind, something like a good chair." While such sentiments seem counterintuitive for the "storm and onslaught" of modernism, Matisse was radical in his own way, as these ten vivid Matisse paintings show.
1. "Green Stripe" ("Madame Matisse"), 1905
As a young man, Matisse studied under the Symbolist painter Odilon Redon, but he also paid close attention to the work of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Initially, he used the pointillist technique of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac and even made acquaintance with the latter. But over time, Matisse moved from dashes and dots to wider planes of color, which left all pretensions to realism. Matisse used color for color's sake, becoming the leader of Fauvism along with Andre Derain. Perhaps the first true avant-garde movement of the 20th century, Fauvism revolted the critics of the day with seemingly accidental uses of pure color. This image of Matisse's wife is a clear example of this. He turns her face into a mask split in the middle by a green stripe, abstracting her features and the wall behind her into a chromatic puzzle.
2. "Young sailor" II, 1906
Another example of Matisse's Fauvist work is this study of an 18-year-old fisherman, less provocative than the portrait of his wife made a year earlier. But his style is no less striking, and his undulating contours anticipate the artist's more familiar style.
This is one of the first works of Matisse, in which you can immediately recognize him. In it, his brush becomes flatter, freer and smoother. Originally commissioned by a Russian industrialist named Sergei Shchukin for his palatial home in Moscow, The Dance (I) is one of the artist's most famous and popular works.
Created in Matisse's country house, this canvas depicts the artist and his wife talking in a room overlooking the garden. The room can be too intense a backdrop for the painting - a rich azure field spanning two subjects that doesn't show the interior; on the contrary, it is covered with many strokes of the brush. However, the dominant use of blue evokes an emotional penetration of the scene from a distance, suggesting that their conversation is tense, or at least lacking in intimacy. Matisse gives another clue in body language: he depicts himself standing "at attention" while his wife is seated. She has street clothes and he is dressed in striped pajamas (the chosen outfit not only for sleeping, but also for working in the studio). The view of the backyard, partly obscured by decorative wrought iron, sits between them like a hanging painting. Does it mean better times in the past or the future? Matisse leaves the answer ambiguous, although there is no doubt about the tension between the two.
5. "Red Studio", 1911
Painted in Issy-les-Moulineaux outside of Paris, Red Studio is a mini-retrospective of the artist's work, with paintings, sculpture and even ceramics hung or scattered around his studio. For example, "The Young Sailor" II is undoubtedly recognizable, occupying a small space on the wall in the upper right sector of the composition. It is located just above a grandfather clock with no hands, as if hinting that time stops when the artist is at work. While the objects in the room are rich in detail, the furniture is represented by ghostly outlines. Matisse himself admitted that he did not know why he chose red for the composition, although one earlier painting, The Red Room (1908), was also characterized by a predominance of crimson. But here, the boundless presence of color shifts the canvas towards a monochromatic scheme that influenced abstract painting for the next 100 years.
6. "Piano Lesson", 1916
This painting belongs to a period that overlapped with the First World War, when Matisse became a more daring and heavy artist. He left his arabesque signatures behind for more rigid, angular geometry, dropping the color slider on his palette to a bleak spectrum of greys, blacks, browns. Instead of the usual smooth application of paint, he began to frequently pounce on the canvas - sometimes with the help of a chisel - culling, cutting, constantly revising and leaving behind numerous evidence of changes. The Piano Lesson is one of the artist's most personal works of the period, depicting his son Pierre at the keyboard. It's a composition about space, but also about time, as it repeats over and over again the pyramidal form of the piano's metronome - in the green stripe crossing the sash on the left, in the strange features on the boy's face. It is placed between two works of his father depicting women, a solid one on a high chair and a small sculpture of a sensual woman lying naked. Calm and serene, the painting "The Piano Lesson" is an allegory of the transition from childhood to masculinity.
7. "Pink Nude", 1935
In the 1920s, Matisse turned to a more naturalistic style, which was especially noticeable in a series of semi-nude odalisques depicted in whimsical settings reminiscent of Middle Eastern or North African harems. But by the 1930s he was back to depicting flatter shapes and colors that were even more simplistic than before - the "Pink Nude" is a famous example of this. Although the painting is relatively small - 25 X 36 inches - the closely spaced object occupies almost the entire composition, and its undulating curves "threaten" to go beyond the frame. The image has a languid, monumental grandeur that does not match its modest scale. The "Pink Nude" anticipates the artist's later drawings, and indeed the woman who modeled here, Lydia Delektorskaya, became one of his assistants, who later assisted the frail and elderly Mathis in creating these works.
8. "Romanian blouse", 1940
The "Romanian Blouse" may have been inspired by a visit to Matisse by an old friend and fellow student at the School of Fine Arts in Paris, where Matisse studied as an artist. His name was Theodor Pallady, a Romanian painter with whom Matisse maintained a long-term correspondence. Matisse used the image of a woman in a peasant-style blouse in previous works, although not in the foreground, as here. The Romanian Blouse was painted the same year the Nazis took over France, and Matisse is said to have created the painting to cheer himself up at one of his country's darkest moments.
9. "Blue Nude" II, 1952
In 1941, Matisse was diagnosed with abdominal cancer and underwent an operation that left him bedridden. He could also sit on a chair, but his loss of mobility meant that he could no longer paint. However, in the last decade of his life, he managed to create some of his most famous and popular pieces. Cutouts, as they were called, were made using scissors and pieces of paper, which were colored in different colors by Matisse's assistants, who then created figures from them on a large background of paper or muslin under the direction of Matisse. This technique was not something new for the artist: he used it as early as 1919. However, until the 1940s, he used cutouts mainly for sketches of sets and costumes, as for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1937-1938. Similarly, he designed the interior design for the Chapel of the Rosary at Vence, built for Dominican nuns near the French Riviera. But works like The Blue Nude - perhaps an epic depiction of the artist's career - were designed to stand on their own, lending a quintessential effect to the fundamentals of Matisse's aesthetic.
10. "Memory of Oceania", 1952-1953
Among the last works that Matisse created before his death was "Memory of Oceania", the prototype of which was an old photograph taken in 1930 on a schooner in Tahiti. Although the images are taken from a boat, the result seems rather abstract; and given the size of 9 * 9 feet - and impressive. Some art historians believe that "Memory of Oceania" (and another dimensional work made around the same time called "Snail") were responses to large-scale abstraction emerging in the United States at the time, specifically "abstract expressionism". ".
From: ,
Matisse Henri Emile Benois (1869-1954), French painter, graphic artist and sculptor.
He studied in Paris, at the Julian Academy (since 1891) with A. V. Bouguereau, at the School of Decorative Arts (since 1893) and at the School of Fine Arts (1895-1899) with G. Moreau.
Like most of the painter's students of that time, he copied the 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).
In 1905-1907. Matisse becomes the leader of a new artistic direction - Fauvism. Since the second half of the 1900s. he finds his own style, which is characterized by a laconic pattern, a contrasting combination of few color zones (panel "Dance" and "Music" for the mansion of S. I. Shchukin in Moscow, both 1910) or rich in shades of one basic tone, translucent and not hiding the texture of the canvas ("Artist's Workshop", 1911).
In the works of Matisse in the second half of the 10s. the influence of cubism is noticeable (“Music Lesson”, 1916-1917); the works of the 1920s, on the contrary, are notable for their immediacy, color variety, and softness of writing (the Odalisques series).
In the 30-40s. the artist combines the discoveries of previous periods, the decorativeness of Fauvism with an analytically clear construction of the composition (the frieze "Dance" in the Barnes Museum, 1931-1932) and with a finely nuanced color system ("Plum Tree Branch", 1948).
Constant motifs in his work are dance, idyllic scenes, patterns of carpets and fabrics, fruits, vases and figurines (“Red Fish”, 1911; “Still Life with a Shell”, 1940, etc.). Matisse prefers to operate with a line - thin, sometimes intermittent, sometimes long and round, cutting through a white or black background (the Themes and Variations series, 1941; illustrations for Poems by S. Mallarme, for Pasiphae de Monterlan, for Poems about love "P. de Ronsard).
In the 40s. the artist often resorts to the technique of colored paper applications (Jazz series, 1944-1947). Matisse turned to sculpture from the beginning of the 1900s, but especially often in the 20s and 30s. (relief "Naked female figure from the back", 1930).
His last work was the interior design (including stained-glass windows) of the Rosary Chapel in the town of Van, near Nice (1953).
"I found in painting an unlimited field of activity, where I could give freedom to my restless creativity"
© Henri Matisse, 25 May 1852
french artist Henri Matisse went down in history as a recognized genius of world painting, largely determining the development of art of the XX century. In search of his artistic "I", he managed to try his hand at several styles and directions at once, outgrew each of them and founded his own school of painting, called Fauvism (French fauve - "wild").
However, unlike his colleagues in the workshop, Matisse himself did not show any "wildness", but was a modest and peaceful person. And if other avant-garde artists literally made a revolution, trying to reflect the rebellious spirit of the times on their canvases, Matisse was looking for “peace and pleasure”, constantly experimenting with paints and rethinking the meaning of color.
“I dream of a balanced art, full of purity and tranquility, art without vain and restless subjects, ... which could rest the mind, ... like a comfortable chair rests a tired person” Matisse said.
Many people still wonder how a person with such a serene creative creed managed to become one of the key figures in the art of the 20th century. Oddly enough, Matisse did not immediately begin to worry about such questions, because the history of the great artist did not begin with the world of painting.
Young Henri, the son of a successful grain merchant, was predicted to have a career as a lawyer, and, being an obedient son, Matisse began to study law at one of the prestigious schools in Paris. After graduating, he returned to his hometown, where he soon got a job as a clerk for a barrister. It seemed that the future of the young man had already been decided, but then fate intervened in his life, radically changing all plans.
Matisse was on the operating table. An attack of acute appendicitis for a long time chained the young man to bed, leaving him without any entertainment. Wanting to somehow brighten up her son's "hospital" everyday life, a loving mother gave him drawing supplies, opening up a new and unknown world for young Matisse. Painting classes fascinated the young man so much that, against the will of his father, he decided to leave law forever and returned to the capital to become an artist.
The first teacher of Matisse, the French artist Gustave Moreau, a symbolist to the marrow of his bones and a recognized master of the game of color, liked to send his students to the Louvre to copy the works of distinguished masters, honing the techniques and techniques of classical painting. "Dream about color", - he repeated to his wards, and Matisse, like no one else, was imbued with this statement, turning his life into a search for the ideal way to convey emotions through color.
Matisse later wrote:
“I perceive the expressive side of color purely intuitively. Transmitting the autumn landscape, I will not remember what shades of color are suitable for this time of the year, I will be inspired only by the sensations of autumn ... I choose colors not according to any scientific theory, but according to feeling, observation and experience ”
Interest in color is already noticeable in the early works of Matisse. As a rule, these are attempts by a young artist to write in the spirit of recognized masters of painting. One of these works is a still life called “Bottle of Schiedam” (Nature Morte à la Bouteille de Schiedam): a classic composition, dark and heterogeneous shades, special attention to halftones give out a resemblance to canvases. Meanwhile, the richness of black and silver colors and the breadth of strokes speak of Matisse's familiarity with creativity.
During the years of study, Matisse consistently went through all stages of the evolution of classical art, tried his hand at each of them. Nevertheless, despite the importance of the traditions of past eras in shaping the style of the artist, Matisse felt that all this was not for him. The Louvre seemed to him a huge library full of old books that make a tired student sleepy and melancholy. Matisse, on the other hand, longed for something new, unusual, unlike what had been created before him.
“It seemed to me that, having entered the Louvre, I had lost the feeling of my era, and that the paintings that I painted under the direct influence of the old masters do not express what I feel”, the artist recalled.
One of the most important stages in the formation of Matisse as an artist was his acquaintance with the works of the Impressionists, in particular with little-known art at that time. This Matisse was obliged to the Australian artist John Russell (John Russell) - his friend and mentor, who for the first time after Moreau made Matisse seriously think about the meaning and meaning of color in painting.
"Russell was my teacher, he explained color theory to me", Matisse admitted.
Impressionism and his own experiments with color contrasts strongly influenced the first "independent" works of the artist. Such, for example, are the still lifes “Dishes and Fruits” (Vaisselle et Fruits), “Fruits and Coffee Pot” (Fruits et Cafetière). This also includes the first landscapes of Matisse - Bois du Boulogne and Luxembourg Gardens (Jardin du Luxembourg).
A few years later, Matisse left the passion for impressionism and immersed himself in the study of the work of his followers. During this period, the artist had a family, but, despite the tight financial situation, he continued to search for his own style. His paintings practically did not sell, however, Matisse did not stop experimenting with color, analyzing the significance of various shades and their combinations.
“Charm, lightness, freshness - these are all fleeting sensations ... Impressionist artists ... subtle sensations were close to each other, so their canvases are similar to one another. I prefer, at the risk of depriving the landscape of charm, to emphasize the characteristic in it and achieve greater constancy., - wrote Matisse many years later.
Matisse met his future wife Amélie Pareire at a friend's wedding. Amelie was a bridesmaid, and she and Matisse were accidentally seated next to each other. The girl fell in love with a tall bearded man without memory, carefully drying every bouquet of violets that he gave her when they met. At that time, Matisse was tormented by doubts and he could not decide whether to finally devote his life to art. Amelie became the person who believed in the artist, truly believed, for a long time becoming his true friend and first muse. And yet, despite Matisse's feelings for the girl, he already understood then that no one and nothing could captivate his heart more than painting. Gaining courage, he confessed:
"Mademoiselle, I love you dearly, but I will always love painting more"
The first personal exhibition of the artist was held without much success, without causing a proper response from critics. Then Matisse decided to leave the capital for the south of France in the company of pointillist Paul Signac (Paul Signac). Impressed by his canvases, Matisse began to work in a similar technique of dotted strokes, and, after a while, the first masterpiece came out from under the brush, called “Luxury, Peace and Pleasure” (Luxe, Calme at Volupté).
The picture was contradictory and in its own way did not fit into the framework set by the pointillists. Unlike his colleagues, who abandoned the physical mixing of paints in favor of separate strokes, Matisse again concentrated on color. Intentionally choosing a bright range - red, purple, orange - the artist moved away from a realistic interpretation of the plot. Saturated shades seemed unnatural, creating tension and disturbing the usual “peace” of classical elements. However, it is precisely due to this inconsistency - a combination of classical and innovative forms - that Matisse for the first time truly managed to show the viewer his own vision of reality.
The picture was a success and was positively received by critics. However, very soon Matisse left pointillism as well, realizing that this path was also not for him.
1905 was a turning point in the work of Matisse. After a long search and experiments with color, the artist managed to bring his “sense of nature” to life as much as possible. Together with a group of like-minded people, he took part in the Autumn Salon, presenting two new works at the exhibition - "Open Window" (La Fenêtre Ouverte) and "Woman in a Hat" (La Femme au Chapeau).
The paintings, painted with complete disregard for all the rules, caused a lot of noise, outraging even the Parisians accustomed to the exotic. Critics dubbed them "a pot of paint thrown in the face of the public", and the authors were completely nicknamed "fauvists" or "savages".
Despite harsh criticism and outrage from the public, "The Woman in the Hat" was purchased by the famous writer and art connoisseur Gertrude Stein (Gertruda Stein). According to one of the eyewitnesses, "Visitors snorted at the painting and even tried to rip it off". Gertrude Stein could not understand why the picture seemed completely natural to her.
Thus, a new direction appeared in painting, which entered the history of art under the name "Fauvism". Matisse was recognized as the leader of the Fauvists, among whom were former classmates from the Moreau class. Abandoning the traditional methods of depicting objects and constructing a picture, these artists began to paint in pure open color, simplifying and schematizing the form. Bright, sometimes aggressive coloring and high contrast formed the basis for the construction of the composition and became the main method of "expressing feelings" of the artists.
“The fragmentation of color led to the fragmentation of form, contour. Result: a vibrating surface… I began to paint with colorful planes, trying to achieve harmony by the ratio of all color planes”, - Matisse recalled half a century later.
France has given the world a huge galaxy of outstanding artists, one of which is the largest and brightest representative of the Fauvism art movement, Henri Matisse. His career began in 1892, when the future artist successfully passed the exams at the Académie Julian in Paris. There he attracted the attention of Gustave Moreau, who predicted a bright career for Matisse in the artistic field.
From the beginning of the 20th century, Matisse began to search for himself. He goes through intense years of copying and borrowing, making many copies of famous paintings from the Louvre, trying to find his own style. The then dominant passion for impressionism gave Matisse the opportunity to work out the manner of transferring the form and color palette.
Art critics of those years noted that Matisse had a peculiar supply of color in his canvases, made in an impressionistic style. The artist was characterized by the use of bright, strong, slightly arched strokes with a predominance of exceptionally bright, saturated colors.
Like the famous master of impressionism Paul Signac, Matisse is fond of pointillism - a type of impressionism that uses numerous disintegrating dots to convey an image. It was this style that helped the artist finally choose Fauvism as the most suitable way for him to reflect the surrounding reality.
In fact, Matisse was the actual founder of Fauvism. The French translation of this term is "wild". This word correlates with the concept - "free", that is, not subject to generally accepted rules.
The beginning of the triumph of Matisse can be considered his painting "Woman in a Green Hat", exhibited by the artist in 1904. On the canvas, the viewer saw an almost flat image of a woman with a face separated by a green stripe. Thus, Matisse simplified the image as much as possible, allowing only one color to dominate.
It was the prevalence of color over form and content that became the main principle of Fauvism. The essence of this style was strongly influenced by Matisse's passion for exotic art forms. The artist traveled a lot, including to the African continent. The primitive, but peculiar art of the tribes impressed him and gave impetus to the further simplification of the image in the paintings.
The juiciness of colors on the canvases of Matisse was borrowed from bright oriental arabesques. From there, the artist's fascination with odalisques, Arab concubines-dancers, was drawn, the images of which he displayed in his paintings until the last years of his life. It is also known that after meeting with the Russian philanthropist Sergei Shchukin, Matisse became interested in ancient Russian icon painting.
At the invitation of Shchukin, Matisse comes to Russia, and then paints his most famous canvas, “Dance”, on his order. A kind of "twin" of this picture is "Music". Both canvases reflect the essence of Fauvism - the naturalness of human feelings, the purity of the transfer of emotions, the sincerity of the characters, the brightness of color. The artist practically does not use perspective, preferring bright red and orange hues.
Matisse survived two world wars, but despite the hardships he experienced, he did not lose the sincerity that he sought to embody in his paintings. It is for the childish immediacy, frankness and enthusiastic brightness of his canvases that the artist is still loved by connoisseurs of painting.
