Poster for the 1977-1978 exhibition "Matisse: The Cut Outs," for the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Depicts the La Vis (The Wine Press), c. 1951. 

Poster designed by Malcolm Grear Designers. 

Sight: 44 1/4 x 22 1/4 in. 

#2545 . 

Henri Émile Benoît Matisse was born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France on December 31st, 1869, the son of a wealthy grain merchant. In 1887 he was sent to Paris to study law, working as a court administrator in Le Cateau-Cambrésis after gaining his qualification. He first started to paint in 1889, after his mother brought him art supplies during a period of convalescence following an attack of appendicitis, and he quit his court position to focus on it full time, deeply disappointing his father. In 1891 he began studying at the Académie Julian as well as the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. With the model Caroline Joblau he had a daughter, Marguerite, born in 1894, and in 1898 he married Amélie Noellie Parayre. The two raised Marguerite together and had two sons as well. Initially he painted still lifes and landscapes in a traditional style, influenced by the work of earlier masters such as Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, but in 1896 Matisse visited the Australian painter John Russell on the coast of Brittany. Russell introduced him to Impressionism, particularly the work of Vincent van Gogh, and gave him an original Van Gogh drawing. This event, combined with his exposure to the work of Édouard Manet and Japanese art, completely changed his style, and he exchanged his muted earth-colored palette for brighter shades. Later that year Matisse exhibited five paintings in the salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, two of which were purchased by the state. In 1898, on the advice of Camille Pissarro, he went to London to study the paintings of J. M. W. Turner and then went on a trip to Corsica. He returned to Paris in February 1899, working beside Albert Marquet and André Derain. Matisse immersed himself in the work of others and went into debt from buying pieces from painters he admired. The work he hung and displayed in his home included a plaster bust by Rodin, a painting by Gauguin, and Cézanne’s “Three Bathers.” To make ends meet after his family was embroiled in the Humphrey Affair, he found work as a draftsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but yearned always to return to painting exclusively. Along with Pablo Picasso, his emotional depictions and mastery of color during this period solidified his position as one of the primary contributors to the revolutionary developments in visual arts at the time, first from his notoriety as one of the Fauves and later from his more rigid and simpler works that signaled a careful balance with classical traditions. In 1939 Matisse’s wife discovered his affair with her young Russian emigre companion, Lydia Delectorskaya, and ended their marriage. Lydia survived a suicide attempt and remained with Matisse for the rest of his life. In 1940 when the Nazis invaded France he managed to escape to Nice, but chose to remain in the country during the Occupation, where he became a symbol of national pride for the Resistance movement. In 1941 Matisse was diagnosed with duodenal cancer and nearly died from the surgery, and he began to make art primarily with paper and scissors, no longer able to paint for extended periods of time. Although he held an important exhibition in 1942 in New York called “Artists in Exile,” he was confined to a wheelchair by 1943 and questioned by the Gestapo for the activities of his ex-wife and daughter assisting the Resistance. He moved to Vence, France to live out the remainder of his days, and in 1952 helped establish a museum dedicated to his work. He died of a heart attack on November 3rd, 1954.

Spotting throughout.