Henri Matisse.
Key Facts about Henri Matisse:
1) Henri Matisse was born on 31st December 1869, he trained as a lawyer, but decided to become a painter.
2) As a gift, his mother gave him his first art supplies and he fell in love with painting.
3) At the beginning of his career, Matisse focused on painting landscapes and still-lifes in a traditional style.
4) Following a meeting with the Australian artist, John Peter Russell, Matisse’s style changed. He started to produce work influenced by the Impressionist movement – a movement based on light over objects in the real world.
5) Matisse’s style evolved and he began to use strong colours and loose some of the realistic qualities of his work.
6) In 1906, Matisse met Pablo Picasso and they became good friends.
7) Matisse started to create large scale cut paper collages. He called the technique ‘painting with scissors’.
8) Matisse’s son, Pierre, opened a gallery in New York. He exhibited the work of many great modern artists (in addition to the work of his father), such as: Joan Miro, Alberto Giacometti and Marc Chagall.
Listen to the story below to fins out more about Henri Matisse' life and art:
Henri Matisse Printmaking:
Henri Matisse was involved with printmaking for more than fifty years.
From 1900 until his death in 1954 he completed more than eight hundred different prints.
His attitude toward printmaking was that it was a personal process, an extension of drawing, and a way of unwinding after long, intense periods of painting.
The detailed nature of Matisse's printmaking is visible in his working process. Unlike many artists, Matisse spent most of his time etching a stamp in his studio that allowed him to print when and as he liked with as much detail as possible.