French painter born at Le Cateau-Cambresis in 1869. Matisse had a classical
education at the Lycee in St-Quentin and, after studying law in Paris
(1887-8), started work in a lawyer's office. He began painting during a
period of convalescence from appendicitis in 1889 and in 1890 he gave up law
to study art at the Academie Julian in Paris. From 1892-8 he studied under
Gustave Moreau where he met Rouault, Manguin, Marquet and Camoin. From 1890
onwards the restraint of his early interiors and still-lives gave way to a
period of experimentation with a Post-Impressionist style. However, Cezanne
remained a lasting influence throughout his life.

In 1896 he exhibited four paintings at the Societe Nationale des Beaux-
Arts. He married Amelie Parayre in 1898 and for the following year they
travelled in London, Corsica and Toulouse. At this time Matisse met Pissarro
and Derain. He exhibited at the Salon des Independants for the first time in
1901 and in 1903 at the Salon d'Automne. After meeting Vlaminck and Signac,
Matisse spent the summer of 1904 painting in St-Tropez with Cross and
Signac.

He was given a one-man show at Vollard's gallery in 1904 and in 1905 and
1906 he exhibited with other Fauve artists at the Salon d'Automne. Around
this time he met Gertrude Stein, who became an important patron and through
whom he met Picasso. He spent the years between 1907 and 1914 travelling in
Italy, Germany, Spain, Moscow and Morocco. By 1913 his work was being shown
extensively in Europe and America.

During the war years Matisse spent his time between Paris and the south of
France and he was in close contact with Marquet, Gris, Renoir and Bonnard.
He was commissioned by Diaghilev to make the set and costumes for
Stravinsky's 'Le Chat du Rossignol'. From this time onwards he lived between
a home in Paris and in Nice with visits to Italy, Tahiti and America.

He divided his time between painting, sculpture, book illustration and
commissions for murals and the ballet. A lasting monument to Matisse can be
found today in the form of his decoration of the whole interior of the
Chapelle du Rosaire, Vence. He was awarded a great number of prizes
including the first prize at the Carnegie International exhibition,
Pittsburgh in 1927 and The Venice Biennale in 1950. Major retrospectives of
his work include those at San Francisco (1936), New York (1943, 1951-2),
Philadelphia (1948), Nice (1950), Los Angeles (1966), London (1968) and
Paris (1956, 1970).

From 1948 onwards Matisse worked exclusively with cut-out pieces of coloured
paper; the most famous of these being 'L'Escargot' of 1953 (Tate Gallery,
London). These increasingly abstract collages continued his interest in
making work of great harmony and decorative order.

'What I dream of is an art of balance, purity and serenity, devoid of
troubling or depressing subject matter. which might be . like an appeasing
influence, a mental soother, something like a good armchair in which to rest
from physical fatigue'. (Henri Matisse, 'Notes d'un Peintre', 1908).

Lit:
'Matisse: His Art and His Public', A. H. Barr Jr, New York 1951
'Henri Matisse', G. Diehl, New York and Paris 1958