Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
THE COURAGE OF ART
“For a painter, nothing is more difficult than to paint a rose, because in order to do so he must first forget every rose that has ever been painted.” —Henri Matisse
“Creativity takes courage,” said French artist Henri Matisse, one of modern art’s original founding fathers. Indeed, Matisse would have been intensely aware of just how deeply the two were intertwined. For one, he wasn’t supposed to be an artist. Matisse studied law and only took up drawing to pass the time during his recovery from a long illness. Thus, his first act of creative courage was leaving the legal profession to pursue art—much to the dismay of his father.
Reproduction of Henri Matisse’s famous paper cutout, Blue Nude.
While Matisse’s earliest paintings were skillfully rendered, it was his interest in the Impressionists that ultimately inspired him to create paintings using bold, undiluted color applied with dense strokes; moreover, the subjects depicted on canvas were often secondary to Matisse’s unpredictable, though complementary, color combinations. Matisse unveiled his new approach in 1905, alongside the works of several artists of the same aesthetic; the reception was less than favorable. One prominent critic compared the artists’ works to fauves, French for “wild beasts,” a term that, ironically, gave this unfamiliar genre its new name: Fauvism—one of the century’s first modern art movements.
While Fauvism was somewhat influential, the movement was relatively short-lived and was just one of many art forms in which Matisse participated. Matisse also designed sets, sculpted, painted murals, and, when illness confined him to a wheelchair, cut out silhouettes from colored paper and created collages. In 1947, Matisse published his paper collages and some of his thoughts in a book entitled Jazz. He died in 1954 in Nice, where he is also buried. —RJR
Notable works: Open Window, Collioure, 1905; The Dance II, 1910; The Knife Thrower, 1947.