French Fauvist Painter and Sculptor, 1869-1954 Henri Matisse is considered the most important French artist of the 20th century and, along with Pablo Picasso, one of the most influential modernist painters of the last century. Matisse began studying drawing and painting in the 1890s. A student of the masters of Post-Impressionism, Matisse later made a reputation for himself as the leader of a group of painters known as Les Fauves. An ironic label given to them by a critic, the name reflected Matisse's aggressive strokes and bold use of primary colors. In 1905 Matisse gained sudden fame with three paintings, including Woman with the Hat, purchased by the wealthy American ex-patriot Gertrude Stein. Beyond painting, he worked with lithographs and sculpture, and during World War II he did a series of book designs. Later in his career he experimented with paper cutouts and designed decorations for the Dominican chapel in Vence, France. Along with Picasso,   Related Paintings of Henri Matisse :. | The Rocaille Armchair (mk35) | The Black Table (mk35) | Goldfish and statue | Notre Dame une fin dapres midi | Landscape |
Related Artists:
Friedrich Tischbein
1750-1812
Edward Henry Corbould,RI,RWS
1815-1905 Painter, illustrator and sculptor, son of (2) Henry Corbould. A pupil of Henry Sass (1788-1844) and a student at the Royal Academy, he showed more wide-ranging interests than his father or uncle. He worked in watercolour and briefly in sculpture, winning gold medals for both from the Society of Arts (Fall of Phaeton, watercolour, 1834; St George and the Dragon, sculpture, exh. RA 1835; both untraced). He designed monumental figures for an unexecuted London County Council sculpture project for Blackfriars Bridge (1889), but he concentrated primarily on watercolours of literary and historical subjects, which he exhibited with the New Water-Colour Society from 1837 until 1898.
Leonhard Beck
German Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1480-1542, Illuminator, painter, draughtsman and woodcutter, son of Georg Beck. He first appears as an illuminator and collaborator with his father in two Psalters for the Augsburg monastery of SS Ulrich and Afra in 1495, producing 35 coloured initial letters for each of them (Augsburg, Staats- & Stadtbib., Cod. 49a). These are vigorously coloured but fairly uniform in character, with small, lively biblical scenes excellently adapted to the letters. Red, green and blue predominate; ochre tones provide a link with the gold ground. The initial letter X is composed of splendidly curled, entwining foliage with birds and half-figures of prophets; the Virgin, Joseph, the Christ Child in the manger and the choir of angels are each enclosed in one of its sectors. The figures are presented in a light, easy manner; the draughtsmanship avoids unnecessary detail.