Henri Matisse

by Lindsey M.








Henri Matisse, the law clerk turned artist, was born in 1869 in northern France. He began taking art classes in Paris at the age of 23 when gave up on being a lawyer. Henri found his own style which consisted of bright colors and thick brush strokes when he turned 36. His painting The Joy of Life and the whole Barnes collection was covered up for no one to see fro 72 years. This collection showed in 1993. Henri was finally recognized as an artist internationally after World War I. He left Paris in 1917 and moved to the South of France and lived there until his death. In 1918 a Matisse-and-Picasso exhibition opened to a certain extent of the role of the two paintors in contemporary art. Two Russians purchased 50 of his paintings by 1923. When Henri was 56, he won the French Legion of Honor award. In 1941he had an abdominal cancer surgery which enabled him to paint. Because of his disability he started to do another form of art. He cut out pieces of paper in the same daring compositions known of his paintings. He did all of his work in bed or in chairs. He died at the age of 85, in his home in the South of France, on November 3, 1954 known as a highly reputable artist. His last paper design was for the rose window at Union Chruch of Pocantico Hills, New York.