Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was born in northern France in 1869. Until 1905, he sought through various techniques what would eventually become his "style," a strong pencil stroke that outlines and surrounds non-imitative colors.

As the principal representative of the Fauvist movement, he became one of the great precursors of modern art. From 1908 to 1911, he worked on the creation of wall panels on the theme of music and dance (Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg), marking a turning point in his career. Colors and shapes became the main vectors of emotion expression in his painting.

He later ventured into decorative art with the Sainte-Marie du Rosaire chapel in Vence, and found, with his cut-out gouaches, used for the first time in 1943 during the illustration of the book "Jazz," the synthesis of all his plastic research.

He passed away in Nice in 1953, honored during his lifetime by a museum, inaugurated in 1952, in Cateau-Cambrésis, his hometown.

(c) Natacha PELLETIER for PASSION ESTAMPES

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