Matisse helped to redefine the modernist movement as a founding member of the Fauves (or wild beasts). Known for their extravagant use of color which they believed was an emotive gesture more than a purely representational tactic, the Fauves broke with artistic tradition and shocked their contemporaries. Matisse was a draftsman, printmaker, collagist, and sculptor, but he is best known for his vibrant paintings full of expressive brushstrokes and flat, graphic forms. Matisse’s flattened planes and bold colors went on to influence the work of the Color Field artists and the Abstract Expressionists, along with many others. The artist’s famous rivalry with Pablo Picasso spurred both artists to innovate and shape twentieth century painting. 

Matisse made his first print in 1900 at a time when printmaking was gaining in popularity. He then continued to produce prints for more than fifty years. The artist created a series of drawings and prints of female nudes that were based upon the Orientalist subject of the reclining Turkish Odalisque. The Odalisque is a female slave or concubine of the Ottoman royal empire and a frequent subject of such nineteenth century artists as Ingres, Delacroix, and Renoir. Matisse sought an artform that would calm the mind and soul. In synch with the reclining woman, the artist proclaimed, “What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter—a soothing calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.” After being influenced by a large exhibition of Islamic art that he viewed in Munich in 1910, the artist spent two months in Spain studying Moorish art. He later visited Algeria (1906) and Morocco (1912-13) where he was greatly inspired by the sights, sounds, colors and architecture of the area and came back from his travels with new ambitions. In Matisse’s Odalisques, he uses Eastern characteristics superimposed onto French models in his Nice studio. The use of Eastern fabrics, screens, carpets, furnishings, and costumes, are used to recreate the imagined “orient.” 

Born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord, France, Matisse grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, Picardie, France, where his parents owned a flower business. As a young student, he thought he would study law and went to school in Paris. However, upon becoming sick and being confined to bed, his mother brought him art supplies during his convalescence and in 1891 he returned to Paris to study art. He most admired Chardin, Manet and the newly discovered Japanese artists and printmakers. Matisse’s friends organized and financed the Académie Matisse in Paris, a private and non-commercial school in which Matisse instructed young artists from 1907 until 1911. In 1917 he relocated to the French Riviera, near Nice where he constructed the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence, often referred to as the Matisse Chapel. He died in 1954 at the age of 84 and is interred near Nice.