Biography

Henri Matisse was born in 1869 in Le Cateau-Cambrésis. The son of a grain merchant and an amateur painter, Matisse did not discover his passion for art until many years later. In 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War, his family moved to Aisne, in northern France, where he grew up and worked as a clerk for a notary. It was at the age of 20 that he began painting. When confined to bed by an appendicitis crisis, his mother offered him painting materials. He painted his first picture in June 1890,…

Henri Matisse was born in 1869 in Le Cateau-Cambrésis. The son of a grain merchant and an amateur painter, Matisse did not discover his passion for art until many years later. In 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War, his family moved to Aisne, in northern France, where he grew up and worked as a clerk for a notary. It was at the age of 20 that he began painting. When confined to bed by an appendicitis crisis, his mother offered him painting materials. He painted his first picture in June 1890, and the same year, he moved to Paris to pursue art studies. He attended evening classes at the School of Decorative Arts. He then unofficially attended classes at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, in Gustave Moreau’s studio. Moreau encouraged his students to break free from the rules of classical painting to stimulate their individuality. During a critique, Moreau even told Matisse, “You will simplify painting.”
In 1896, Matisse exhibited for the first time at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, of which he became an associate member. He then met Auguste Rodin and Camille Pissarro and began to take an interest in Impressionist painting in 1897. During a trip to London with his wife Amélie and their three children, he discovered the paintings of William Turner, which inspired him to paint “The Pink Wall.” He then experimented with sculpture and modeling at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. In 1904, his first solo exhibition took place. That same year, he rented a studio on Rue de Sèvres.From 1905, Matisse participated in several salons, notably the Salon d’Automne, which caused a sensation due to the exhibition of works with pure and violent colors applied through flat layers on the canvas. It was at this time that the term “Fauvism” appeared, with Matisse as its leader. From 1906 to 1913, Matisse traveled extensively in Andalusia, Morocco, and Algeria. These trips deeply influenced his artistic practice, which combined arabesques and simplification of forms. After World War I, Matisse lived in Nice where he continued to paint. He exhibited his works alongside those of Picasso. His first retrospective was dedicated to him in 1924 at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. Another, larger retrospective was held in 1931 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. During the war, following an arrest due to his participation in the Resistance, Dina Vierny was sent to pose for Matisse by Aristide Maillol, to prevent a second arrest. In 1941, Henri Matisse was hospitalized for colon cancer, which left him with many sequelae; he wore a steel corset and could not stand for more than an hour. Bed ridden again, he used his nurse Monique Bourgeois as a model and began using his own technique: cut-out gouache papers, for the “Jazz” series. In 1944, his wife Amélie and his daughter Marguerite were arrested by the Gestapo, and Amélie was tortured and disfigured. In shock and emotion, Matisse drew a whole series of portraits of his daughter. A year later, Matisse was too ill and disabled to paint, so he created solely from cut-out papers with the help of assistants who glued them to the canvas in his place.
In 1946, Matisse advised Dina Vierny to open a gallery in Paris. When she accidentally found the location, an old bougnat unsuitable for this activity, Matisse took matters into his own hands and convinced Auguste Perret to redesign the future gallery. Following its opening in 1947, Dina Vierny dedicated various personal exhibitions to him in 1966, 1970, 1980, and 1982. At the age of 81, in 1952, he created his last work, “The Sadness of the King,” and the same year saw the inauguration of the Matisse Museum in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, his hometown. He died on November 3, 1954, in Nice.

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