Henri Emile Benoît Matisse was born on December 31st, 1869, in Cateau-Cambrésis, into a family that earned its livelihood from business.

It seemed as though his life had been planned for him and he would become a notary clerk. But destiny decided otherwise. At the age of 20, he suffered an attack of appendicitis. Bedridden and inactive, he was given a box of paints by his mother. This proved to be a revelation. He abandoned notary studies to enter into art school in Paris.

Very quickly, academic study weighed him down. He began to frequent the workshop of Gustave Moreau, an anti-conformist and progressive artist. There, he met Derain, Rouault and Marquet. With the latter, he founded the Fauvist movement in 1905. He ended up enrolling in the Fine Arts Institute in Paris.

Believing that his was a vocation, Matisse stated, “As soon as I had that box of paints in my hands, I knew it would be there for life.”

In 1896, he was elected member of the National Society, and he exhibited five paintings in the “Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts.” The French government bought two of his works.

Nevertheless, his beginnings were difficult. He had a two year-old daughter named Marguerite. She went on to become wife of the famous art critic Georges Duthuit and she co-authored the “Catalogue Raisonné” of the produced works of her father. She also became a prominent member of the French Resistance and was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo. 


                           

At that moment, Matisse had great difficulties making ends meet. His painting was somber, and commissioned works were rare. His domestic life was unhappy. In 1897, he met Amélie Noellie Parayre. For forty years, they were married and together they had two sons, Pierre and Jean. In New York, Pierre became a major art dealer and a famous gallery owner. Jean became a painter.

In 1901, Matisse went to St-Tropez. He was fascinated by its light and colors.

In 1905, he returned to the South, this time to Collioure. His painting was bathed in light. From the Autumn Salon in Paris, Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck and Dufy exhibited works that were splashed with great spots of color and that would be qualified as savage or untamed (“fauve” in French). The movement known as Fauvism was born.

In 1916, Matisse decided to spend the rest of his life in Nice. He painted a number of canvasses there, featuring luxurious gardens, abundant foliage and windows opened upon bays flooded with sunshine. The women he represented were languorous, lightly clothed, abandoned to the power of warmth, with their arms raised behind their heads, in a nonchalant pose. Severely criticized ever since his Fauvism tendencies appeared, his painting began to find favor once again in official circles. Matisse frequently visited Renoir at Cagnes-sur-mer.

Matisse regularly met with Picasso. Both men had an acute awareness of their talent. Artistically, they were from different worlds, yet they admired one another.

Matisse was a courteous man who lived the life of a virtual recluse, always dressed in a suit and straw hat. Meanwhile, Picasso showed off his weight-lifter’s torso, walking around in a sailor’s T-shirt.

While Picasso’s love affairs were numerous, Matisse wallowed in misery when Amélie left him. Picasso painted by instinct and with immediacy and with an epidermal expression. Matisse, by contrast, was very reflective, composed and structured. Out of love for the art, both men acquired paintings by the other.

These two “friends” had the same lithographer, “Mourlot,” and friends in common, the “Steins.” They had the same dealers and gallery experts, Vollard, Durand-Ruel and Berggruen.

When it came to the Cubist movement, they took opposite sides. In the full spirit of Fauvism, Matisse could not understand the harshness of Cubist lines. As a piece opposing Cubism, he painted “The Piano Lesson.” Picasso then responded with “The Three Musicians.”

Matisse was located in the South of France, in Nice. His work was intoxicated with sunshine and easy living. His canvasses were full of flowers, lemons, oranges and Moroccan painted fabric. Thanks to Gertrude Stein, he met collectors who would put an end to his dire economic straits.

From 1917 to 1929, he painted ceaselessly. Then in 1929, he went to New York where his son Pierre had established himself as an excellent art dealer in possession of a major gallery. Matisse was fascinated by the American Universe. He was introduced to wide circles of people and his fame grew immensely. 

                                   
                                                  House of Matisse in Nice Cimiez
 

Back on the Charles-Félix Square in Nice, Matisse’s domestic life was in trouble. He divorced his wife in 1939. Matisse moved on to a liaison with Lydia Delectorskaya, a model and nurse who took over Matisse’s affairs. At that time, he moved to Cimiez, in the hills above Nice. He continued his travels, visiting Tahiti in particular. In 1941, he was diagnosed with cancer of the duodenum, but this news did not affect the luminosity of his paintings.

Starting in 1948, Matisse went about creating paintings for the Rosary Chapel, destined for the Dominican nuns of Vence, very near the future Maeght Fondation. In 1952, he produced “Blue Nude II,” and in 1953, he created “The King’s Sadness” in paper cut outs.

In 1952, the Matisse Museum in Cateau-Cambrésis was inaugurated. The artist made a donation of 100 of his works.

In 1954, he succumbed to cardiac arrest. He was buried in the Cimiez cemetery in Nice.

This article was written by Agnès Bressot