Material Type

Buchanan Art Collection

Artist

Matisse, Henri

Date

c. 1953

Medium

lithograph, 10/400

Length

77.5 cm

Height

55 cm

Condition

Good

Accession Number

1979.01.005

Number

18200-8532

Subjects

ART

Historical Association

FINE ARTS

Artist Biography

1869-1954. Born in Le Cateau-Cambresis, Nord, France. Matisse came from generations of weavers. He was raised in Bohain, which was famous for its luxury fabrics. The early exposure to textiles, is said to shape his visual language. This includes examples from his own collection of carpets and cloths from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and would inform his sense of colour and pattern while appearing in his compositions. He studied with the Symbolist Gutave Moreau and participated in Paris' official Salons. His major breakthrough came during the summers of 1904 and 1905, when the bright sunlight of the South of France inspired him, along with artists like André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck. Matisse and others created optically dynamic works of bright, clashing colours that led to these artist being connected with the term fauves (wild beasts). Fauvism, set him on a career-long path, which he described as "construction by coloured surfaces." This approach remained central through the various stages of his work, from his abstracted paintings of the 1910s to the decorative, sunlit interiors of his so-called "Nice period" of the 1920s to the radically innovative cut-outs of his last decade. He was a painter, sculptor, draftsman, and printmaker. Matisse is celebrated as finding a way to unite colour and line within his work. Although his worked appeared to be executed with effortless ease, Matisse suggested that he laboured exactingly to achieve the "art of balance, of purity and serenity." His work is represented in many public and private collections including the Modern Museum of Art, New York; Tate, London, England; The Art Institute of Chicago; and Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris. https://www.moma.org/artists/3832

Collection

Buchanan Art Collection

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