Synopsis
The latter years of Matisses career made up what he described as his "second life". This catalogue is dedicated to Matisses late work and provides a greater understanding of the artist through his correspondence with the writer André Rouveyre. It begins with a serious operation Matisse underwent in 1941 and ends with his death in 1954, a period of 13 years during which there was an extraordinary blossoming of his art. Rouveyre was a novelist and artist dreaded for his cruel portraits, and an old friend from Matisses student days. These letters (almost 1200 of them) provide unprecedented insight into Matisses creative process and artistic aspirations, at a time when he was redefining his modes of expression. Many are adorned with drawings and decorations and for the first time this catalogue relates these letters to works produced, or in production, at the time they were written: oils on canvas, drawings, illustrated books, tapestries, stained-glass window maquettes, and large and small gouache cut-outs.
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About Henri Matisse
H
Henri Matisse
1869–1954
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso, as one of the artists who best helped to define the revolutionary developments in the visual arts throughout the opening decades of the twentieth century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture.
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