Henri Matisse French Fauvist Painter

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Henri Matisse

1869-1954

One of the Greatest Painters Of All Time

French Fauvist Painter

About the Painter

"By personal inclination, because he is French and because he is specially gifted as a colourist, Matisse is apt to lay too much stress on the colour. Like Debussy, he cannot always refrain from conventional beauty; Impressionism is in his blood. One sees pictures of Matisse which are full of great inward vitality, produced by the stress of the inner need, and also pictures which possess only outer charm, because they were painted on an outer impulse. (How often one is reminded of Manet in this.) His work seems to be typical French painting, with its dainty sense of melody, raised from time to time to the summit of a great hill above the clouds." -- Wassily Kandinsky

Henri Matisse Quotes

You study, you learn, but you guard the original naiveté. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.--Henri Matisse

Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us. -- Henri Matisse

There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted. -- Henri Matisse

Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us. - Henri Matisse

In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows, and when there remains an energy that is all the stronger for being constrained, controlled and compressed. -- Henri Matisse

I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things. -- Henri Matisse

Description of The Fauvist Movement

The Fauvist movement was the exuberant stepchild
of pointillism and impressionism. The movement was led by Henri Matisse. The Fauves emphasized vivid colors, hearty brushstrokes and simplified forms. The subject matter of the Fauve painters is generally predictable. They favored seascapes, the French countryside, portraits, nudes, and domestic interiors. The Fauve palette is what set them apart. They used paint directly from the tube and never mixed their colors. They favored deep reds, oranges, and bright greens. The Fauve colors seemed intense and garish, even offensive to some. This new style of paintings was a reflection of the transformation that was taking place in Europe, the change from the restrictive Victorian age to a more enlightened, tolerant society.

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