Fauvism

Jared Murphy

gustavemurphy@yahoo.com

Art History II

“The Joy of Life”

by Henri Matisse

April 15, 2010

Betty Gerich

Basic Information

The painting that I chose to do my report on was "Le Bonheur do Vivre (The Joy of Life)" by Henri Matisse. This is an oil on canvas painting, and it was completed between 1905 and 1906. It is currently located at The Barnes Foundation, in Merion, Pennsylvania. Henri Matisse was born on December 31, 1869 in the town of Le Cateau, located in northern France near the border of Belgium. As a child and into his adolescence, Matisse showed very little interest in the world of art. When he was 17 years old, his father, Emile Matisse, sent him to study law in Paris. He excelled in his legal studies and soon after procured a job as a clerk in a lawyer's office in the town of Saint-Quentin. Matisse was happy with his drearily mundane life, and if not for a case of appendicitis in 1890, he may have continued on that course. During his recuperation, his mother provided him with a box of paints, a set or brushes, and a guide to learn how to paint. He immediately took to the painting, and his life found a new direction. In the later years of his life, Matisse wrote, "Henceforth I did not lead my life. It led me"(Russell 9). Soon after, Matisse pursued an education in the arts. He continued his work as a law clerk, and took up early morning art classes from 6:30 to 7:30 every morning before work. In 1892, Matisse made the decision to study are full time and forsake his career in the legal community. He studied under Adolphe Bouguereau, the most famous painter in France at the time, but soon became bored with the traditional style and repetition of the art of the time. He then applied for entrance to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, a fine arts school with multiple campuses throughout France, and was initially rejected. Matisse would frequent the campus and do sketches with other artists, which is where one of the instructors, Gustave Moreau,...