Henri Matisse
1869–1954
© Succession Henri Matisse/DACS 2018
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© Succession Henri Matisse/DACS 2018
License this image
In Tate Modern
In the Studio: Studio Practice
Free entry
In Tate St Ives
In Tate Modern
Start Display: Room two
Free entryBiography
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (French: [ɑ̃ʁi emil bənwɑ matis]; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso, as one of the artists who best helped to define the revolutionary developments in the visual arts throughout the opening decades of the twentieth century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture.
The intense colorism of the works he painted between 1900 and 1905 brought him notoriety as one of the Fauves (wild beasts). Many of his finest works were created in the decade or so after 1906, when he developed a rigorous style that emphasized flattened forms and decorative pattern. In 1917 he relocated to a suburb of Nice on the French Riviera, and the more relaxed style of his work during the 1920s gained him critical acclaim as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. After 1930, he adopted a bolder simplification of form. When ill health in his final years prevented him from painting, he created an important body of work in the medium of cut paper collage.
His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.
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Read full Wikipedia entryArtworks
Henri Matisse The Snail
1953
Henri Matisse Trivaux Pond
1916 or 1917
Henri Matisse Studio Interior
c.1903–4
Henri Matisse Draped Nude
1936
Henri Matisse Back I
c.1909–10, cast 1955–6
Artist as subject
R.B. Kitaj Mort
1966
Bernard Meninsky Notebook
date not known
Sidney Janis Gallery Leaflet for an exhibition entitled, ‘Selection of French Art’ at the Sidney Janis Gallery
1955
Graham Sutherland OM Sketchbook 37
[c.1961–7]
Vanessa Bell, recipient: Duncan Grant Letter from Vanessa Bell to Duncan Grant
[15 February 1930]
Film and audio
TateShots
Françoise Gilot on Matisse
'Matisse was my god,' says the lover and muse of his good friend and rival, Pablo Picasso.
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On Matisse: Thomas Demand in conversation with Nicholas Serota
In this audio recording the contemporary artist Thomas Demand talks with Nicholas Serota about how and why Matisse and his ...
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Curator's talk: Matisse
Join curator Flavia Frigeri for a talk on Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs exhibition at Tate Modern. Flavia maps the trajectory ...
Watch
Iris Apfel dresses for Matisse
Fashion icon Iris Apfel turns up the colour as she styles herself after Matisse
TateShots
Hilary Spurling on Matisse
'For all of the painters I knew when I was young, Matisse was a god'
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Grace Ndiritu: Questions from the past
Artist Grace Ndiritu examines how work from the Orientalism movement and Henri Matisse influenced Western ideas of Africa in the ...
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Hilary Spurling on Henri Matisse
Through an exploration of work in the Tate Collection, Hilary Spurling, renowned author of a two-volume work on Henri Matisse ...
Watch
Matisse Picasso, Creating And Destroying Histories – Part 1: Sophie Howarth
Introduction by Sophie Howarth
Watch
Matisse Picasso: Molly Nesbit and Tamar Garb
Marking the major exhibition, Matisse Picasso, at Tate Modern, a series of conversations between leading art historians on the art ...
Watch
Matisse Picasso: T J Clark & Christopher Green
To mark the major exhibition, Matisse Picasso, at Tate Modern, two distinguished art historians discussed the art of Henri Matisse ...
Features
Art Term
Tone
The lightness or darkness of something – this could be a shade, or how dark or light a colour appears
Art Term
School of Paris
In the early years of the twentieth century, Paris became a magnet for artists from all over the world and ...
Art Term
Complementary colours
Complementary colours are pairs of colours that contrast with each other more than any other colour, and when placed side-by-side ...
Art Term
Fauvism
Fauvism is the name applied to the work produced by a group of artists (which included Henri Matisse and André ...
Blog
Eight blue moments in art history
Dive into the colour blue, and find out what it has meant to artists over the centuries
Read
Tate Papers no.18: Autumn 2012
This issue explores how drawing has been used by artists to record and represent unconscious or invisible forces that go ...
Blog
How Matisse made his masterpiece: the Vence Chapel
In our last blog post of the series, assistant curator Flavia Frigeri explains how Matisse's cut-outs were transformed into ...
Blog
How Matisse was seduced by the palm tree
Flavia Frigeri, assistant curator of our Matisse cut-outs exhibition, writes on how Matisse's wrangling with the question of how ...
Blog
Two masters, one friendship: the story of Matisse and Picasso: Stories from the Studio
This week Flavia Frigeri, assistant curator of our Matisse cut-outs exhibition, takes a closer look at the honest friendship and ...
Tate Etc
Philip Taaffe on Matisse
Tate Etc. asked three artists, Thomas Demand, Beatriz Milhazes and Philip Taaffe to talk about their personal fascination with Henri ...
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