Henri Matisse
£355.00
Matisse Dessins Dina Vierny
A lithographic poster printed by Atelier Mourlot, Paris for the exhibition Matisse Dessins Dina Vierny, 1970.
Dimension: 68×49 cm
Year: 1970
Printed: Mourlot, Paris
Condition: A | no marks, tears or staining
Matisse studied in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts and became a student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Gustave Moreau. Regarded as the leader of the Fauvist movement, Matisse pursued the expressiveness of colour throughout his career, and by 1917, he celebration of colour reached its peak when he began to spend time on the French Riviera.
Henri Matisse was born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis in northern France on December 31, 1869. The son of a middle-class family, he studied and began to practice law. In 1890, however, while recovering slowly from an attack of appendicitis, he became intrigued by the practice of painting. In 1892, having given up his law career, he went to Paris to study art formally. He joined Gustave Moreau’s studio at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
Matisse’s true artistic liberation, in terms of the use of colour to render forms and organise spatial planes, came about first through the influence of the French painters Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne and the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, whose work he studied closely beginning about 1899.
Although intellectually sophisticated, Matisse always emphasised the importance of instinct and intuition in the production of a work of art. He argued that an artist did not have complete control over colour and form; instead, colours, shapes, and lines would come to dictate to the sensitive artist how they might be employed in relation to one another.
THE ARTIST
HENRI MATISSE
b.1869, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France
Henri Matisse's artistic journey is one of the most captivating and prolific of the Modern era. His career was defined by artistic experimentation, fierce competition, and an unending pursuit of perfection. His prints are highly collectible works of Modern Art that have stood the test of time, and he is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. His lithography prints are some of the most beautiful examples of his unique artistry and are highly valued by collectors.
He was a Post-Impressionist who rose to prominence as the leader of the French art movement Fauvism. Colourful, expressive brushstrokes and flat, geometric lines defined the aesthetic of Fauvism and the ideals of modernism itself through the artwork of Matisse. Painting, sketching, printmaking, collage, and sculpture were some of the mediums used by the French artist, who often depicted simplified human forms and floral motifs.
Matisse's sculpture and painting were both heavily influenced by the human form. Because he felt that the theme had been ignored in Impressionism, it was significant to him in his Fauvist work. On the one hand, the figure was shattered into sharp fragments, while on the other, it was treated almost as a curvilinear ornament. Some of his work reflects his models' moods and personalities, but more often than not, he used them as vehicles for his own feelings, reducing them to cyphers in his monumental designs.
His artwork has been purchased for tens of millions on the secondary market and is included in numerous museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate, and the Guggenheim. Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and many others were influenced by Matisse's flattened planes and vivid colours. Both he and Picasso were inspired to create and influence 20th-century painting by their infamous rivalry.