THE ARTIST:
Henri
Emile Benoît Matisse was born in a tiny, tumbledown weaver's cottage on the rue
du Chêne Arnaud in the textile town of Le Cateau-Cambrésis at eight o'clock in the evening on the last night of
the year, 31 December 1869 (Le Cateau-Cambrésis is in the extreme north of
France near the Belgian border).
The
young Matisse was an awkward youth who seemed ill adapted to the rigors of the
North; in particular, he hated the gelid winters. He was a pensive child and by
his own account he was a dreamy, frail and not outstandingly bright. In later
life he never lost his feeling for his native soil, for seeds and growing
things he had encountered in his youth.
In
1887 he went to Paris to study law, working as a court administrator in Le
Cateau-Cambrésis after gaining his qualification. Once Matisse finished school,
his father, a much more practical man, arranged for his son to obtain a
clerking position at a law office.
Matisse’s
discovery of his true profession came about in an unusual
manner. Following an attack of appendicitis, he began to paint in 1889,
when his mother had brought him art supplies during the period of
convalescence. He said later, “From the moment I held the box of colors in my
hands, I knew this was my life. I threw myself into it like a beast that
plunges towards the thing it loves.” Matisse’s mother was the first to advise
her son not to adhere to the “rules” of art, but rather listen to his own
emotions.
Two
years later in 1891 Matisse returned to Paris to study art at the Académie
Julian and became a student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau. After a discouraging year at the Académie Julian, he
left in disgust at the overly perfectionist style of teaching there.
In
1896, Matisse was elected as an associate member of the Société Nationale, which meant that each year he could show paintings at the Salon de la Sociétéwithout having to submit them for review. In the same
year he exhibited 5 paintings in the salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and the state bought two of his paintings. This was
the first and almost only recognition he received in his native country during
his lifetime. (http://www.henri-matisse.net/biography.html)
Just
as the Cubists used multiple viewpoints to undermine the conventional
illusionism of single-point perspective, Matisse placed objects in relation to
each other in terms not of spatial recession but of color. Despite his very
different approach to painting, and the fact that he was considerably older
than most members of the Cubist circle, Matisse shared some of their concerns,
including an enthusiasm for non-Western art. The influence of Cubism ca be felt
in his work during the war years, although subsequent phases of his career from
his “rococo” decorative idiom of the 1920s to the sharply defined and supremely
graceful simplicity of his late cut-outs reassert the primacy of color.
(Harvard and Mansfield 269-70).
Henri
Matisse artist often regarded as the most important French painter of the 20th
century. The leader of the Fauvist movement around 1900, Matisse pursued the
expressiveness of colour throughout his career. His subjects were largely
domestic or figurative, and a distinct Mediterranean verve presides in the
treatment. (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/matisse/)
THE WORK OF ART:
Matisse had discovered the richness
and creative freedom offered by these pieces of paper covered in a single
colour, a matt gouche made of pigments, lime and gum Arabic, and cut up with
scissors. It was with this techniqie that he was to produce a number of
monumental pictures during the very last years of his life; these are works on
a par with the greatest classical compositions.
In this respect, La Tristesse du
roi (Sorrows of the King) 1952, is a reference to one of Rembrandt’s canvases,
David Jouant de la harpe devant Saul (David Playing the Harp before Saul), in
which the young biblical hero plays to distract the King from his melancholy,
as well as to the late self-portraits of the old Dutch master. In this
work, Matisse layers the themes of old age, of looking back towards earlier
life (La Vie antérieure*, the title
of a poem by Baudelaire which the artist had already
illustrated) and of music soothing all ills.
In
this final self-portrait, the painter represents himself by this black form,
like a silhouette of himself sitting in his armchair, surrounded by the
pleasures which have enriched his life: the yellow petals fluttering away have
the gaiety of musical notation; the green odalisque symbolises the Orient,
while a dancer pays homage to the female body. All of these Matisse themes are
combined in this magisterial painting. (http://www.centrepompidou.fr).
PERSONAL REACTION:
I think this painting
is amazing because Matisse wanted to express a part
of his life in painting. All Things represent all the pleasant
things that Matisse had along his life. This painting reminds me
of a stage in my life where I was feeling not quite right,
but there was always someone around me trying to help me
feel good. Matisse in this work also represents a biblical
hero trying to distract the king from his melancholy. Also, I
like how this painting shows sadness, but at the same time it is showing
happiness and rhythm. I noticed that the dancer paying homage to the lady in
the painting is kind of confusing to me. To me it seems like he is balancing,
and throwing flowers.
WORKS CITED:
Pioch, Nicolas. "Matisse, Henri." WebMuseum: Matisse, Henri. WebMuseum, Paris,
19 Aug. 2002. Web. 01 May 2012.
<http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/matisse/>.
"The Personal Life of Henri Matisse." Biography of Henri Matisse. Henri Matisse.
Web. 01 May 2012. <http://www.henri-matisse.net/biography.html>.
"Henri Matisse." Centre Pompidou. Web. 01 May 2012.
<http://www.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources/ens-matisse-en/ens-matisse-en.htm>.
Arnason, H. Harvard., and Elizabeth Mansfield. “Chapter 12: Art
in France after World War I.”History of
Modern Art. 6th ed. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. 264-84. Print
