In 1908, Matisse published “Notes from a Painter,” an essay in which he describes the shift in his work away from Fauvism and toward a harmonious and spiritually uplifting decorative balance. He wrote: “The entire arrangement of a picture is expressive; the place occupied by the figures, the empty spaces around them, the proportions, everything has its share. Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter’s command to express his feelings …What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity …”

From 1908 to 1913, Matisse worked in a decorative style, producing two large murals—Dance and Music of 1909–10—for the home of a Russian collector, as well as the painting Harmony in Red (1909). As in his Fauve years, he continued to experiment with an extreme flattening of the picture plane by using bright colors and curved arabesque patterns. Beginning in 1913, he briefly experimented with cubism, a style developed in 1907 by his long-time rival Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. In addition to painting, Matisse continued to sculpt and draw, using these mediums to explore the concepts of simplicity of form outlined in “Notes from a Painter.” In 1917, he traveled to Nice in the south of France, where he lived for the remainder of his life. During what is known as the artist’s Nice period—the years 1917–30—the Mediterranean Sea, the warm climate, and the abundant sunlight of the region exerted a strong influence on him. His work there displays a heightened decorative quality and attention to light effects, and his subject matter centers on the still life or the reclining female nude. In some works, the women wear oriental costumes and are seated in exotic interiors, demonstrating Matisse’s interest in non-western cultures. In the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, drawing became an essential aspect of Matisse’s output. While some drawings were used as studies for his paintings, many were regarded by the artist as works of art in their own right. In 1929, Matisse worked exclusively on prints, completing more than 200 etchings, drypoints, and lithographs.

In 1930, Matisse traveled to Merion, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, to complete the large murals Dance I (1931–33) and Dance II (1932–33) in the home of the eminent collector Albert Barnes. Installed in 1933, the Barnes murals display, as their titles suggest, the subject of dance, which had been a longstanding topic of interest to the artist. The simplified figures and background in the murals display the essence of movement and the human body in motion. Matisse began working with paper cutouts in 1940; this technique merges the two main preoccupations of his artistic life, color and form. Weak and confined to his bed in his later years, the artist was able to create his cut-out works with the assistance of his wife. The decoration of the interior of the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, France, executed between 1948 and 1951, was his last major work.

Select Bibliography

Cowling, Elizabeth. Matisse Picasso. London: Tate Gallery, 2002.

Elderfield, John. The Drawings of Henri Matisse. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1984.

Elderfield, John, ed. Henri Matisse: A Retrospective. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1992.

———. The “Wild Beasts”: Fauvism and Its Affinities. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1976.

Flam, Jack. Matisse: The Man and His Art, 1869–1918. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.

———. “Matisse and the Fauves.” In “Primitivism” in 20th-Century Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1976.

Flam, Jack, ed. Matisse and Picasso: The Story of Their Rivalry and Friendship. Cambridge: Icon Edition, 2003.

———. Matisse: A Retrospective. New York: Park Lane, 1990.

———. Matisse on Art. New York: Phaidon, 1973.

Herbert, James. D. Fauve Painting: The Making of Cultural Politics. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.

Werth, Margaret. The Joy of Life: The Idyllic in French Art, circa 1900. Berkeley: University California Press, 2002.

 

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