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| Wednesday, 03 November 2004 |
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Henri Matisse (1869-1954) The most innovative artist of the 20th century by Thilak Palliyaguruge Henri-Emile-Benoit Matisse, the French painter, was born in 1869 at the Cateau, a northern French town, and is generally considered as the most innovative artist of the century. His father was grain merchant. At the early age of 10, he was fortunate enough to receive a classical education at the Lycee. In 1887 he had to go to Paris to study law. While working for a lawyer he attended morning drawing classes at the Ecole Quentin Latour. However, he got the true taste of painting when he was convalescing from an attack of appendicitis. He gave up studying law and came under the tutelage of the renowned painter Adolphe Bouguereau. He was not quite content with his stereotyped method of teaching art and became an unofficial student under Gustave Moreau who happened to be an open minded teacher.
Gustave was always innovative and gave students freedom to develop their creativity and encouraged them to develop their artistic talents and character as colourists. He also instructed his students to go into streets for inspiration while instructing them to copy old masters at Louvre. Henri Matisse married Amelie Parayre and visited London. He frequented Moreau's studio, exhibit date the 1896 Salon of the "Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts" and was elected as an Associate member of the Societe and since then he stepped up as a successful artist. His paintings bore impressionist ingredients even after the natural disappearance of impressionism. Landmark In 1905, when Matisse and his group of friends exhibited at the "Salon d'Automne", the art lovers of the day, after seeing brilliantly coloured canvases, ridiculed them labelling them as Fauves (wild beasts). Fauvism aimed at the liberation of traditional and descriptive role of colour. Another landmark in Matisse's life is the meeting of Stein family Leo, Michael and the famous sister Gertrude Stein, author and art lover. Stein family earned an undisputed fame as great collectors, and this association gave a rare opportunity for Matisse to come into close contact with critics, dealers, and connoisseurs of art thereby he could shine as a contemporary artist of the day and success came after him quite rapidly. He moved to a large house in Issy-les-Moulineaux and travelled widely in Africa, Germany, Russia, Morocco and Spain. His contact with Russian merchant Sergei Stschoukine was also an important event in his life. He commissioned large murals for his home in Moscow. The war erupted in 1914 and affected his travels abroad. From 1916 Matisse was mostly attracted to spend winters in Mediterranean country (Nice on the Rivera), especially in Mediterranean climate with bright sunlight and his preoccupation for years to come was the magical effect of colours and light he experienced in his travels. Artists like Cezanne, Van Gogh, Renoir and many other artists migrated to South of France for inspiration. The artwork of chapel of the Rosary in Vence was a major undertaking in his last years and he considered it as an important project in his life. He remarked that he could translate into reality the outcome of his lifetime experiments in colour and light on to the innovative artwork of the chapel. He enjoyed working in this project very much. In 1921, the French Government purchased his work and thereafter he had a ready market for his paintings. During his fauvist years he was branded as 'loathsome', 'abnormal' and 'degenerate'. But he was an amiable and a quiet person in normal life. Ferdinand Oliver diagnosed him as 'sympathetic character... of an astonishing lucidity of spirit, precise, concise, and intelligent'. He once remarked "Oh, do tell American people that I am a normal man". Balance of purity He discussed about painting thus 'What I dream of is an art of balance of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing. Subject matter on art which might be for every mental worker, he be businessman or writer, like an appeasing influence like a mental soother, something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue'. In 1930, his trip to Tahiti left him disappointed and dissatisfied. The same year he did illustrations for poet Mallarme and did a large-scale mural for Barnes Foundation in Phialdelphia. In 1937, he designed artwork for a production of Shostakovich's "Le Roguhe et le Noir" and afterwards he was working on cut paper work. "The paper cut outs' he said allows me to draw in the colour. It is a simplification for me. Instead of drawing the outline and painting the colours inside it - the one modifying the other - I draw straight into the colour". In 1939, with the war clouds hanging overhead, Matisse was quite agitated with the prevailing insecure atmosphere. He was seriously ill with cancer and even while convalescing in the palatial hostel, he was working from his bed or wheelchair within pieces of charcoal tied into long poles and drawing on the ceiling and walls. He was also engaged in cutting segments of coloured paper and forming them to compositions. On November 3, 1954 he died at the age of 84. **** Back **** |
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