Exhibitions - Previous Exhibitions -Henri Matisse [1869-1954]

Henri Matisse, French master and leader of the Fauve movement was an avant-garde artist who took his inspiration from a broad range of influences.

Henri-Emile-Benoît Matisse was born on December 31, 1869, in Le Cateau–Cambrésis, France. He grew up at Bohain-en-Vermandois and studied law in Paris from 1887 to 1888. By 1891, he had abandoned law and started to paint. In Paris, Matisse studied art briefly at the Académie Julian and then at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts with Gustave Moreau.

In 1901, Matisse exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. His first solo show took place at the Galerie Vollard in 1904. He was one of the first painters to take an interest in “primitive” art. Matisse abandoned the palette of the Impressionists and established his characteristic style, with its flat, brilliant colour and fluid line. His subjects were primarily women, interiors, and still life studies.

The Poèsies Antillaises series of lithographs were inspired by John-Antoine Nau's poetry, which took its themes from voyages in the Antilles. The exoticism and richness inspired Matisse to create lithographic facial sculptures from the women of these islands.

Poèsies Antillaises is a beautiful example of the extraordinary gift for drawing, the ability to incorporate and to express so much through line reduced to its simplest form, which was one of Matisse's greatest legacies to 20 th century art.

Between 1950 and 1954, Matisse created some highly innovative, brightly coloured gouache paper cut-outs. Illness had confined him to a wheelchair and severe arthritis made it difficult for him to paint.

Matisse completed and proofed all the stones for the Poésies Antillaises series in 1945/46. However for some reason the actual edition of the album was never pulled at that time. The work was finally published 18 years later by Mourlot, who scrupulously followed both Matisse's maquettes and final corrected proofs.

Matisse himself wrote, “what I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or disturbing subject matter….like a comforting influence, a mental balm – something like a good armchair in which one rests from physical fatigue.”