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Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia:
Henri Matisse (December 31, 1869 – November 3, 1954) was a French Artist, noted for his use of color and his fluid, brilliant and original draftsmanship. Born Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, he grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois. In 1887 he went to Paris to study law. After gaining his qualification he worked as a court administrator in Le Cateau-Cambrésis. Following an attack of appendicitis he took up painting during his convalescence. After his recovery, he returned to Paris in 1891 to study art at the Académie Julian and became a student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Gustave Moreau. Influenced by the works of Paul Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Paul Signac, and also by traditional Japanese art, he started to see color as a crucial element of composition. His art was based on a method that consists in separating elements of the work into drawing, colour, composition – and then joining the elements in a synthesis. He was the only Fauvist to develop his work as a balance between colour and line, in flat compositions, without traditional means of giving the illusion of depth (shading and modelling for example). He was one of the first painters of the Fauvist ("Wild Beast") movement to be interested in “primitive” art. His contemporary Derain's work should be compared and contrasted. Matisse abandoned the palette of the Impressionists and established his characteristic style, with its flat, brilliant color and fluid line. His subjects were primarily women, interiors, and still life. He painted in the Fauvist manner, becoming known as a leader of that movement. His first exhibition was in 1901 and his first solo exhibition in 1904. His fondess for bright and expressive colour became more pronounced after he moved southwards in 1905 to work with André Derain and spent time on the French Riviera, his paintings marked by having the colours keyed up into a blaze of intense shades and characterized by flat shapes and controlled lines, with expression dominant over detail. The decline of the Fauvist movement after 1906 did nothing to affect the rise of Matisse; he had moved beyond them and many of his finest works were created between 1906 and 1917 when he was an active part of the great gathering of artistic talent in Montparnasse. He was a friend as well as rival of the younger Picasso, with whom he is often compared. Matisse lived in Cimiez on the French Riviera, now a suburb of the city of Nice, from 1917 until his death in 1954. In 1941 he was diagnosed with cancer and, following surgery, he used a wheelchair. Matisse did not allow this setback to stop him working however, and with the aid of assistants he started creating cut paper collages called gouaches découpés, often large. These demonstrate his ability to bring his eye for colour and geometry to a new medium of utter simplicity, but with playful and delightful power. Draughtsman, Printmaker, Sculptor, but principally a Painter, Henri Matisse achieved widespread fame during his lifetime. Today, a Matisse painting can fetch as much as US$ 17 million. In 2002, a Matisse sculpture, "Reclining Nude I (Dawn)," sold for US$ 9.2 million, a record for a sculpture by the artist.
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