MATISSE DEAD

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27499, 5 November 1954, Page 13

MATISSE DEAD

Modern French Painter (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) NICE, November 4. Henri Matisse, the famous French painter, died in Nice yesterday afternoon. Matisse, -who would have been 85 on December 31, died from a heart attack. He had been in poor health for several years and spent much of his time resting in bed. . A few months ago Matisse who 'with Picasso, was the most outstanding modern French painter, started work on a massive ceramic sculpture. Because of his extreme age and sickness the design was split into 16 separate panels. The work was reported to have been ordered by an admirer connnected with the Swedish Royal Family. Matisse is believed to have been fabulously wealthy. The slightest pencil sketch by him cost at least £BO.

Once the highly controversial leader of a group of painters who were at first heavily castigated by the critics (some of whom called them the "wild beasts”), Matisse in his later years was an acknowledged master of modern French art.

Although he actually began to paint in 1890 it was not until 1905 that he won real recognition. Since then his reputation as a colourist and decorative painter had spread throughout the world.

He also made his mark as a sculptor, a graphic artist, illustrator of books and designer for the ballet. He completed in 1951, at the age of 81, the design and decorations of the now famous Dominican chapel in Vence, France.

He was born in Le CateauCambresis, a small town in the north of France, on December 31, 1869, the son of a successful grain merchant. He was sent to Paris to study law, but finally, in spite of his father’s objections, decided instead to follow art After a short period of impressionism, he exhibited new canvases at the Salon d’Automme, and some of his works of this period are regarded as landmarks in the history of modern painting. His reputation grew steadily and in the next five years he became internationally famous, as one of the two leaders of the modem movement in painting. In the opinion of the noted crjtic, Roger Fry, Matisse’s outstanding gifts were an astonishing sense Of linear rhythm, an impeccable sense of colour harmony, and an almost uncanny control of colour in his pictorial depth.