Paul
Cezanne, who expressed depth through
color, was Matisse 's primary influence. Paul
Gauguin and Vincent
van Gogh influenced his use of color
to express emotion, his simplified or distorted drawing, and his sacrifice
of realistic illusions of depth to an emphatic surface pattern. Retaining
volume within the limits of color and design, Matisse juxtaposes intense
colors, varied patterns, and a rhythmic line. The results are dynamic
paintings that are sometimes emotional, sometimes serene, constantly
changing, and always more than merely decorative. Throughout his long
and successful career Matisse sought to improve his work, and to find
the perfect manner of expression.
By 1918, he had a worldwide reputation, and besides his paintings
and line drawings he was commissioned to do book illustrations, ballet
sets, and murals. His most famous mural "La Danse," painted
for the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia (1931-33), achieves its
effect by an extreme simplification of figures in a moving pattern
of graceful lines. His last great public work was the complete decoration-stained
glass, furniture, murals, and chasubles-for the Dominican Chapel in
Vence, a work accomplished in tones of ochre, black, and white. The
subdued coloring used in the chapel offers a sharp contrast to the
brilliant combinations of color he used in the cut-paper paintings
he created in the final years of his life when he could no longer
handle a brush. Matisse died in Vence, in the south of France, in
1954.
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