Henri Matisse Art

Whether working as a draftsman, a sculptor, a printmaker or a painter Henri Matisse was a master of color. Although classically trained at the Académie Julian, in Paris, he quickly abandoned traditional techniques and genres to pioneer a style all his own, marked by quick, gestural strokes and fluid contours.
Along with fellow painter André Derain, Matisse was the leading proponent of Fauvism, a movement whose name is derived from the French word for "wild beast.” Marked by vibrant hues, Fauvist paintings like Matisse’s famous 1906 composition Le Bonheur de vivre, use wild, active brushstrokes and a palette unconstrained by nature, resulting in women with purple skin and trees with orange leaves. Often, these compositions unite pure color with the white of exposed canvas to create a sense of transparency and light.
In addition to masterful landscapes and still lifes, Matisse loved to paint erotic subjects, particularly the female nude. Rejecting strict realism, he distilled the form into its essential parts and then translated these into voluptuous, rounded contours. In pictures like the lithograph Nu Bleu, he explored the expressive power of a body in motion by placing his figures in twisted or conrtorted poses, transforming their limbs into tangles of color and shape that pushfigure painting toward abstraction.
1930s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Etching
1950s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1960s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1930s Henri Matisse Art
Linocut
1950s Abstract Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1950s Post-Modern Henri Matisse Art
Bronze
1950s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1930s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Linocut
1950s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Linocut
15th Century and Earlier Fauvist Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1920s Post-Impressionist Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1950s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1940s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Aquatint
Early 20th Century Henri Matisse Art
Etching
1980s Henri Matisse Art
Linocut
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Etching
Early 20th Century Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1940s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1950s Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1950s Abstract Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1940s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Stencil
1930s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Linocut
1960s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Etching
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Etching
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Drypoint
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Etching
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Etching
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Etching
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1940s Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1940s Realist Henri Matisse Art
Linocut
Mid-20th Century Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1940s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
Mid-20th Century Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Etching
1950s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
20th Century Modern Henri Matisse Art
Linocut
1910s Impressionist Henri Matisse Art
Pencil
1920s Expressionist Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Etching, Aquatint
1940s Fauvist Henri Matisse Art
Stencil
1920s Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1970s Post-Impressionist Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1970s Post-Impressionist Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1970s Post-Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1970s Post-Modern Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1970s Post-Impressionist Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1970s Post-Impressionist Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1970s Post-Impressionist Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph
1970s Post-Impressionist Henri Matisse Art
Lithograph