French Painter’s Wild Side
Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel
Henri Matisse passed away November 3rd, 70 years ago. The acclaimed French painter (1869-1954) was a leader of the Fauve (“wild beasts”) art movement in the early 1900s that embraced intense, vivid colors, often unrelated to the subjects’ actual colors.
A style of painting an art critic of the day described as “an orgy of pure tones,“ Fauvism encouraged painters to think outside the lines of formality to follow their own visions.
Inspired by nature, especially the brightly colored blooms of spring and summer, Matisse said, “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”
This trio of paintings, La Japonaise, Landscape at Collioure, and The Open Window (all created in 1905), captured the scenery on a family trip to Collioure, France, on the Mediterranean Sea.
Colorful boats bobbing in the ocean or nestled in the harbor were also favorite subjects of his.
Over the years Matisse painted in many different styles, including Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Expressionist, as did many of his contemporaries, including Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Henri Rousseau.
Always looking for new ways to express himself, Matisse experimented with making artistic cut-outs – large panels of different shaped painted paper that he arranged into 3-dimensional murals; an art form he considered a cross between painting and sculpture.
One of his best-known works is the cut-out series he did to illustrate Igor Stravinsky’s opera Le Chant du Rossignol in 1919.
In 1946 he returned to this technique to create an artist’s limited edition folio book entitled Jazz, a collection of his writings illustrated with whimsical theater and circus images.
Surprising his fans and critics alike, Matisse continued to push artistic boundaries, saying, “An artist must never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of a style, prisoner of a reputation, prisoner of success.”Still producing innovative artworks into his eighties, Matisse had a youthful outlook on life, saying, “Look at life with the eyes of a child.”
One of the most active painters of the 20th Century, Matisse’s strong work ethic contrasted with people’s stereotypical view of “temperamental” artists. His advice to aspiring artists: “Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.”
As an artist, Henri Matisse may have been “wild,” but he wasn’t wasteful…of his time or his talent.
Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.