Henri Matisse 1869-1954

Előszó

In Quest of Pure Colour 1869-1905 Destiny did not intend Henri Matisse to be a painter. He telis us himself that he was "the son of a seed merchant, due to take over the business from my father". Matisse was no precocious talent, no child prodigy like Pablo Picasso. Far more, the development of his life's work grew gradually and steadily out of an unparalleled devotion to colour, light and space, and the creation of harmony. Matisse was born on 31st December 1869 at Le Cateau-Cambrésis in north-east Francé. His father, Emilé Matisse, and his mother Héloise (née Gérard), both came from Le Cateau but were living in Bohain, where they kept a kind of household provisions store, with one extra department for seed and another for paint. Emilé Matisse ruled with an iron paternal authority, and it was taken for granted that one day his son would follow in father's footsteps. But young Henri's health was poor and put paid to these plans. The boy went to the Henri Martin grammar school in Saint Quentin (1882-1887), studied law for two years in Paris, toyed with the notion of becoming an apothecary, and in 1889 took work as a lawyer's assistant in Saint Quentin. And then, quite unexpectedly, he discovered his vocation as a painter. Through most of 1890 Matisse was confined to his bed with appendicitis; his mother gave him a box of paints to while a way the time, and the young man discovered a passión. It was a passión that must surely have been latent already, for during his spell in the lawyer's office Matisse had been attending a course in drawing at the Quentin de la Tour foundation: the course was meant for curtain designers and was held in the top floor of the Palais de Fervaques from seven to eight o'clock in the morning. Matisse quickly decided on painting and in 1890 or early 1891 returned to Paris in order to take William Bougereau's classes at the Académie Julián and prepare for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts entrance examinations. Bougereau nominated his pupil in January 1892; but Matisse failed the examination. Not long after his arrival in Paris, "All my efforts go into creating an art that can be understood by everyone." HENRI MATISSE Male Model, 1900 Oil on canvas, 99,3 x 72,7 cm Museum of Modern Art, New York Vissza