Henri Matisse was destined to become a lawyer but instead, changed his mind and sought a career as a painter. It was a struggle for him to settle on a style and to enter into the world of Paris based artists. When he exhibited his Woman with the Hat, the patrons of the Salon D’Automne looked upon his color and violent brush strokes as the work of a ‘wild beast’. The Salon was soon referred to as “the wild beast’s cage” and Fauvism was born. It is said that people actually tried to scrape off the paint. The strange use of color and the hat which looked like a still life was pure Fauvism. Matisse was now called “the fauves of Fauves,’ but that merely pushed him forward further. Through the efforts of Gertrude Stein’s brother, Michael, and his wife Sarah plus a young German painter, Hans Purrmann, Matisse was enticed to open an art school at the former Couvent du Sacre-Coeur at 33, Boulevard des Invalides. Matisse was surprised at the number of students he drew and the variety of nationalities they represented. Matisse and his family moved into the chapel. Matisse talked lovingly about art in that beautiful setting and created the atmosphere of a university. While encouraged to visit museums, it dismayed Matisse to find his students copying his personal (Fauvist) colors. Matisse continued to simplify as can be seen in his monochromatic Dance and Music. It was color that would remain the organizing factor of his work. Sarah and Michael Stein were the first people to bring Matisse’s work to America. The Fauvist ‘Woman” was derided and attacked. Gertrude Stein (and Leo) saw greatness in that work. She made an offer to Matisse to buy it. At that time, Matisse was very poor. His children had to be boarded out for a while because of the cost of living at home, but Matisse stuck to his original price. Gertrude and he hassled over it but in the end, the Stein’s purchased it. In reality it was a bargain.
Other American friends of the Stein’s were the sisters, Etta and Claribel Cone. They bought many early Matisse’s and brought them back to Baltimore where they became the beginnings of a great collection of Matisse’s works. Picasso too befriended Matisse through the Stein’s. Although he worshipped Cezanne, he saw greatness in what Matisse was doing. Matisse introduced Picasso to African Art but when Picasso used that influence in his Demoiselles d’Avignon,
Matisse was shocked. He found it objectionable. Cubism was not something Matisse embraced, yet he and Picasso remained friends and traded paintings with each other. In the Picasso Museum in Paris, there are works by other painters that Picasso obtained through buying and trading. They include works by Cezanne, Braque, Rousseau and Matisse. Matisse was one of the great influences on Picasso’s work. To be influenced by another painter was a display of respect by Picasso. Picasso once said, “All things considered, there is only one Matisse.” Matisse rented a pied à terre at 132, Boulevard du Montparnasse even though he eventually moved to the area around Nice. Here the color and light were perfect for his needs. Trips to North Africa and Polynesia had instilled in him a reverence for bird songs and color. Even in Paris his apartment was decorated with huge birdcages, humming birds, and blue and white African birds. His purpose was to express inner visions. He painted scenes of great beauty and in his work there was an expression of joy. He created lithographs, etchings, paintings, murals and sculpture. He even did costume designs for a Massine ballet. His The Joy of Life, considered by many as his greatest success, was purchased by Dr. Albert Barnes and is now on view outside of Philadelphia at the Barnes Foundation. But things changed after 1941 when he suffered from abdominal cancer and spent time recuperating from two operations. He began designing simple cut-outs and if he was confined to bed, he stuck the cut out pieces on the wall, with the aid of an assistant. These were called ‘decoupes’.
By 1948, he had moved into a large house in Vence, just north of Nice. Here he began the task of redesigning and decorating the local Chapelle du Rosaire, which was consecrated in 1951. Today, this chapel is a museum and a testimony to Matisse’s simplicity and use of light. It is an awesome feeling to stand in this predominantly white building and examine the chapel walls and the Matisse designs of the ‘stations of the cross’. I recommend this chapel for anyone interested in this great artist. I also recommend the Matisse Museum in the town of Nice. While the large paintings are not the central draw, his early sketches and smaller works give one a chance to study the works of one of the premier painters of the twentieth century. He was a recipient of the French Legion of Honor in 1925. Like Picasso (and Gertrude Stein) Matisse had a reverence for Cezanne. Picasso said “Cezanne was our father.” Even though he was influenced by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Signac and Turner, Matisse said,”In modern art, it is undoubtedly to Cezanne that I owe the most.” Henri Matisse died in Nice on November, 3, 1954. Other Museums or exhibits:Le Cateau-Cambresis Museum (At…
Henri Matisse was destined to become a lawyer but instead, changed his mind and sought a career as a painter. It was a struggle for him to settle on a style and to enter into the world of Paris based artists. When he exhibited his Woman with the Hat, the patrons of the Salon D’Automne looked upon his color and violent brush strokes as the work of a ‘wild beast’. The Salon was soon referred to as “the wild beast’s cage” and Fauvism was born. It is said that people actually tried to scrape off the paint. The strange use of color and the hat which looked like a still life was pure Fauvism. Matisse was now called “the fauves of Fauves,’ but that merely pushed him forward further.
Through the efforts of Gertrude Stein’s brother, Michael, and his wife Sarah plus a young German painter, Hans Purrmann, Matisse was enticed to open an art school at the former Couvent du Sacre-Coeur at 33, Boulevard des Invalides. Matisse was surprised at the number of students he drew and the variety of nationalities they represented. Matisse and his family moved into the chapel. Matisse talked lovingly about art in that beautiful setting and created the atmosphere of a university. While encouraged to visit museums, it dismayed Matisse to find his students copying his personal (Fauvist) colors.
Matisse continued to simplify as can be seen in his monochromatic Dance and Music. It was color that would remain the organizing factor of his work.
Sarah and Michael Stein were the first people to bring Matisse’s work to America. The Fauvist ‘Woman” was derided and attacked. Gertrude Stein (and Leo) saw greatness in that work. She made an offer to Matisse to buy it. At that time, Matisse was very poor. His children had to be boarded out for a while because of the cost of living at home, but Matisse stuck to his original price. Gertrude and he hassled over it but in the end, the Stein’s purchased it. In reality it was a bargain.
Other American friends of the Stein’s were the sisters, Etta and Claribel Cone. They bought many early Matisse’s and brought them back to Baltimore where they became the beginnings of a great collection of Matisse’s works.
Picasso too befriended Matisse through the Stein’s. Although he worshipped Cezanne, he saw greatness in what Matisse was doing. Matisse introduced Picasso to African Art but when Picasso used that influence in his Demoiselles d’Avignon, 
Matisse was shocked. He found it objectionable. Cubism was not something Matisse embraced, yet he and Picasso remained friends and traded paintings with each other. In the Picasso Museum in Paris, there are works by other painters that Picasso obtained through buying and trading. They include works by Cezanne, Braque, Rousseau and Matisse. Matisse was one of the great influences on Picasso’s work. To be influenced by another painter was a display of respect by Picasso. Picasso once said, “All things considered, there is only one Matisse.”
Matisse rented a pied à terre at 132, Boulevard du Montparnasse even though he eventually moved to the area around Nice. Here the color and light were perfect for his needs. Trips to North Africa and Polynesia had instilled in him a reverence for bird songs and color. Even in Paris his apartment was decorated with huge birdcages, humming birds, and blue and white African birds.
His purpose was to express inner visions. He painted scenes of great beauty and in his work there was an expression of joy. He created lithographs, etchings, paintings, murals and sculpture. He even did costume designs for a Massine ballet. His The Joy of Life, considered by many as his greatest success, was purchased by Dr. Albert Barnes and is now on view outside of Philadelphia at the Barnes Foundation.
But things changed after 1941 when he suffered from abdominal cancer and spent time recuperating from two operations. He began designing simple cut-outs and if he was confined to bed, he stuck the cut out pieces on the wall, with the aid of an assistant. These were called ‘decoupes’.
By 1948, he had moved into a large house in Vence, just north of Nice. Here he began the task of redesigning and decorating the local Chapelle du Rosaire, which was consecrated in 1951. Today, this chapel is a museum and a testimony to Matisse’s simplicity and use of light. It is an awesome feeling to stand in this predominantly white building and examine the chapel walls and the Matisse designs of the ‘stations of the cross’. I recommend this chapel for anyone interested in this great artist. I also recommend the Matisse Museum in the town of Nice. While the large paintings are not the central draw, his early sketches and smaller works give one a chance to study the works of one of the premier painters of the twentieth century.
He was a recipient of the French Legion of Honor in 1925.
Like Picasso (and Gertrude Stein) Matisse had a reverence for Cezanne. Picasso said “Cezanne was our father.” Even though he was influenced by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Signac and Turner, Matisse said,”In modern art, it is undoubtedly to Cezanne that I owe the most.”
Henri Matisse died in Nice on November, 3, 1954.
Other Museums or exhibits:
Le Cateau-Cambresis Museum (At Matisse’s birthplace)
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Design of the rose window at Union Church of Pocantico Hills, New York.
Double Deception is work of fiction recently published in serialization on the web. It is a story through the memories of Dr Robert Bartlett Haas, a close friend of Gertrude’s,about the portrait of Gertrude Stein that had been done by Picasso before WWI. This portrait is now on view in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The story unfolds when Gertrude decides that she would like a copy of the painting done so she can keep a similar image in her summer home in Bilignin, near Belley not far from Aix Les Bains. She engages the copyist Morevna Vorobiev to do the job and when it is delivered even Picasso cannot tell the paintings apart since he sees them in a gas lit room.
After Gertrude dies, the painting is sent to New York where it is deemed a copy. Has the wrong painting been delivered? Through the work of two master art detectives it is determined that Miss Vorobiev, the lover of Diego Rivera, has copied the painting twice and has kept the original. The remainder of the story deals with the uncovering of the original, the solution of the mystery and the final hanging of the right painting at the Met.
It is, as Gertrude might have said, “a mystery with an ending”.
