Posted
on December 31, 2015
Was
he a Wild Beast?
An
artistic rebel?
Or
was he someone who upheld tradition?
I
guess that French artist Henri Matisse was both!
There
was an entire group of artists in the early 1900s who were called les
Fauves, the Wild Beasts. They used strong colors rather than
sticking with realistic colors as they created their paintings. Also,
their works were painterly, because these artists allowed visible
brushstrokes and impulsive daubs of color rather than a more careful,
smooth application of color meant to create accurate shading.
Henri
Matisse was considered the leader of les Fauves!
Fauvism
only lasted a few years as an art movement, but Matisse create art
works – prints and sculptures as well as paintings – for more
than half a century. By the 1920s, Matisse was being hailed as
someone who was upholding the classical tradition in French painting.
How
and why?
Henri
Matisse was born on this date in 1869. When he was 20, something bad
happened: Matisse had an attack of appendicitis. I'm not sure if he
had an operation or no, but I read that it took Matisse a while to
recover.
Then
something good happened: Matisse's mom brought him art supplies while
he was still convalescing from the illness.
Then
something REALLY good happened: As he painted, Matisse discovered a
“kind of paradise” (his words).
Even
though he had studied law and worked as a court administrator,
Matisse now wanted to become an artist. He went to Paris to study
art....
And
that's when something else, something kind of bad, happened:
Matisse's father told him how deeply disappointed he was in his son's
choice of art over law.
I'm
not sure if Matisse's dad just didn't value art, or if he worried
that his son would always be the stereotypical “starving artist,”
or what – but if Matisse had knuckled under to his dad's hopes and
dreams for him, I'm pretty sure he would never have become well
known, and we wouldn't be talking about him today. Luckily, Matisse
followed his passion, made his imprint on the world, and lived a
long, interesting life.
By
the way...
Matisse
chose to stay in France when it was occupied by Nazis during World
War II, because he felt that leaving France would be deserting it.
(His son had arranged for him to flee to Brazil.) Matisse apparently
didn't actively work with the Resistance, his son Pierre, his
estranged wife Amelie, and his daughter Marguerite all did.
Pierre
helped Jewish and anti-Nazi artists escape occupied France and enter
the United States, and he held an exhibit in New York City called
“Artists in Exile.” (According to Wikipedia, that exhibit
became legendary.)
Amelie
was a typist for the French Underground. She was jailed by the Nazis
for six months!
 |
| Matisse's daughter, Marguerite |
And
Marguerite was a true hero. She worked for the Resistance during the
war, but then she was captured, tortured almost to death by the
Gestapo, and sentenced to a concentration camp. When the Allies made
an air strike on Germany, the train Marguerite was on, bound for the
concentration camp, was halted; she managed to escape the train and
survived in the woods. Finally, she was rescued by fellow resisters.
Wow!
That's quite a story!
A
coincidence...
As
I read about Henri Matisse, I noticed that he died the year I was
born.
Then
I read about his daughter, and I noticed that SHE died the year my
oldest daughter was born.
They both lived long lives – Henri died at age 84, and his daughter died at age 87.
They both lived long lives – Henri died at age 84, and his daughter died at age 87.
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