HENRI MATISSE
Henri Emile Benoit Matisse was born in Le Cateau Cambresis in northern France on December 31, 1869. As a young man, Matisse studied law in Paris and found early employment in a law office. After an intestinal illness that would plague him his entire life caused him to stay in bed for nearly a year in 1890, he took up art and abandoned his legal career. He studied art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under the tutelage of the great symbolist Gustave Moreau who apparently disapproved of his interest in impressionism. Even in his earliest work, Matisse used color in an expressive manner, and his interiors and portraits were considered Fauve ("wild beast") for their vibrancy. "Luxe Calm Et Volupte" ( 1904) , "Le Joie De Vivre" (1905/6) and "La Danse" (1909/10) are examples of early breakthrough work that shows an almost primitive approach .
Throughout the early 1900s , Matisse's popularity grew. In 1919 he held an exhibition along with Pablo Picasso. In 1920, he designed the set and costumes for Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Nightingale. His unique style flourished until 1940, when duodenal cancer forced him to live either in bed or a wheelchair, and he devised a method of constructing cut outs, and designed the interior for chapel at Vence in 1951. He died in 1954, two years after the Matisse Museum opened in Le Cateau.
The best place to see a Matisse online is the Henri Matisse Art Gallery. It's a lovingly put together site that features excellent reproductions of many of Matisse's major works - listed alphabetically - as well as photos of Matisse at work and cutouts from his Book Jazz. All artists should have such thoughtful sites dedicated to them. There are also fine reproductions at Mark Harden's texas.net Museum of Art.
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