Henri Matisse

Before the 20th century, not many artists had done modern abstract. Paintings such as “The Green Stripe” and “Harmony in Red” by Henri Matisse were given bad critiques. They were mostly objected to the different use of color in the paintings, and many did not understand his work. The use of color was used to show his emotional expression.

Henri Matisse was born in Northern France in 1869. During his youth, he had no interest in art. His father had high hopes for him to become a lawyer or work at a store when he got older. When Henri became twenty years old, he was recovering from something called appendicitis. His mother gave him a box of paints to pass time. Matisse has finally found a passion and destiny. After he had fully recovered from his illness, Henri got a job as an assistant lawyer. Soon after, Henri had decided to give up his law career to officially become a full-time artist and painter. His parents were very upset with his decision, especially Henri’s father.

Since Matisse started painting later in his life, he had convinced his parents to send him to a good art school. He studied the work of the modern artists, exploring their techniques and styles to see how they suited his own ideas. He liked the style of post-impressionist Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh. He had began painting in the style of impressionism an pointillism at the academy. He then started to paint in his own style of art. Matisse’s painting, “The Green Stripe”, a portrait of his wife he painted in 1905, was given very bad critiques. An art critic called his work, “The nastiest smear of paint I have ever seen” and another thought it was “the work of an insane person.” Matisse’s friends entered his art in a show and the critics called the show, the fauves show, which means “wild beasts” in French. Henri and his friends didn’t mind. To this very day, Henri is