Henri+Matisse

=Henri Matisse=

Henri Matisse was a famous artist from the late eighteen hundreds to the early nineteen hundreds. He painted and sculpted, as well as completed drawings and printmaking. Matisse grew up in Northern France and in 1887 went to Paris to study law. A few years later in 1889 Matisse was hit with a painful case of appendicitis. During this time, his mother brought him art supplies and Matisse began to paint. After the pain from his illness was gone, he decided that painting was something he enjoyed more than law. Matisse later went on to art school. He initially started painting pictures of fruit in a bowl or flowers in a vase. In 1897 Matisse was introduced to Vincent Van Gogh, who was completely unknown at the time, and the impressionist style. In 1910, Matisse painted his most popular piece entitled, //Dance//. Matisse is most famous for using the style known as Fauvism. Most of his later works were created using Fauvism. Fauvism became very well known thanks to Matisse and Andre Derain. Matisse spent years and years working on his art to perfect it. He was trying to get noticed at his somewhat unsuccessful exhibitions. Newspapers harshly criticized Matisse and his work saying things like, “A can of paint has been thrown in the face of the public!” Because of his unique style and art form. Although Matisse’s work did get mostly harsh feedback, some very important and well known figures felt the opposite way. Gertrude Stein and Leo Stein both enjoyed Matisse’s artwork. Henri Matisse found his real life calling in Paris and realized how much art meant to him. His subjects that he painted all had to do with French culture and European styles. I think seeing any of Matisse’s artwork would be an awesome experience since I know that he created his very own style.