Essay On Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse drew some outstanding paintings. In the beginning of the 20th century was the modernism era. It included amazing and famous painters, sculptors, draughtsmen, and printmakers. In this era an amazing artist was born called Henri Matisse. He was born in 31, December 1869 in Le Cateau-Cambrésis in Northern France. He was a painter, sculptor, drafts man, and printmaker. His mother was an amateur painter and his father was a corn merchant. He studied law from 1887 to 1891 and then decided to go to Paris, to become a painter. He drew some amazing paintings and all of them had a story behind it. He drew paintings to pass time. He painted his first masterpiece in 1897, it was called The Dinner Table.

He wanted to draw something soothing, calming and something that would influence the minds of people, he thought of drawing an armchair. “Matisse was heavily influenced by art from other cultures. Having seen several exhibitions of Asian art, and having traveled to North Africa, he incorporated some of the decorative qualities of Islamic art, the angularity of African sculpture, and the flatness of Japanese prints into his own style”. Henri’s aim was to discover "the essential character of things". Between 1908 and 1913 Henri made journey’s to a lot of country’s which are Spain, Germany, Russia, and Africa. He produced five sculptures and one of them is heads of Jeannette he made it during 1911 and 1912. He had become known as an International master by 1919, his style at that time was special because he used pure colors. In 1927 he received the first prize at the Carnegie International Exhibition at Pittsburgh . Henri Matisse was the most intelligent and artistic painter in this era in Paris. “Jean Cassou, director of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, recalled that Matisse bedridden much of the time after his operation, continued to work from his room” .His career exceeded six decades. He was influenced by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, “who painted in a “Pointillist” style with small dots of color rather than full brushstrokes”