Henri Matisse
From Philosopedia
Matisse, Henri (31 December 1869 - 3 November 1954)
Matisse, one of the best-known artists of the 20th century, was born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Picardy, France. A painter, sculptor, and lithographer who along with Picasso is considered one of the two foremost artists of the modern era, was of Flemish descent - the name sometimes was spelled Mathis or Mathisse. Although he had studied for the law, Matisse discovered his passion for painting while convalescing from appendicitis at age 21, discovering "a kind of paradise" as he called it later [[1]].
He studied the work of Cezanne, Monet and Seurat, and worked with Paul Signac and Andre Derain. In 1905 he was dubbed King of the Fauvists ("Wild Beasts"), despite his gentlemanly habits. Fauvism was characterized by intense color and a faux-primitive style that shocked the art world.
When twenty-nine, he married Amélie Parayre, but it was with his first mistress, Camille Joblaud, that Matisse had his first child. The story of his difficulties in first becoming an artist, and of a “Humbert scandal” involving the Parayre family’s finances, has been detailed by Hilary Spurling in The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henry Matisse, The Early Years, 1869-1908 (1998). The scandal made Parayre one of the most vilified names of that time, but once the Humberts were found guilty and sentenced to five years’ solitary confinement with hard labor both the Parayre and Matisse families felt exonerated. This allowed Matisse to continue his painting, which had been cut short by the “dark period” in his life.
In 1906, Matisse unveiled his most famous work, The Joy of Life. Gertrude Stein was an early collector. From 1917 on, Matisse lived in Nice. He was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1925.
In 1941, he was diagnosed with duodenal cancer and was confined the rest of his life to a wheelchair but never gave up his art.
Matisse once wrote,
- Ever since there have been men, man has given himself over to too little joy. That alone, my brothers, is our original sin. I should believe only in a God who understood how to dance.”
Henry Spurling’s The Unknown Matisse (1998), confirmed not only that Matisse was “a staunch atheist” but also an anarchist.
