Matisse, Henri

Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954)

Henri Matisse is among the most celebrated artists of the early 20th century. With a work that spanned half a century, Matisse went from a post-impressionist to become one of the leading artists of modern art. He was also a life-long friend of Pablo Picasso and together they set the stage for the art world.

While Matisse early paintings were inspired by the likes of Vincent Van Gogh, he started to seriously charter his own course with the 1905 exhibition at the Salon d’Automne. Here, Matisse indulged his love of bright colors without any reference to the subject’s natural colors. The coloring was so vivid that some critics commented that “a pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public”. An excellent example of the work of Matisse from this exhibition is Woman with a Hat, from 1905. In line with this, the favorite subjects of Matisse throughout his career were still life and women. He painted numerous examples of both, as his work helped define the artistic movements of the century. When he was no longer able to paint, he instead used paper cut-outs to create art. This among other resulted in the book Jazz from which the famous Matisse image “Icarus” originates.

In 2005, "The Plum Blossoms" by Matisse was purchased for the Museum of Modern Arts in New York for USD 25 million. Other famous works include “Icarus”, “Le Bonheur de Vivre or The Joy of Life” and “Portrait of Madame Matisse”.