OBITUARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20989, 28 September 1931, Page 7

OBITUARY.

M. HENRI MATISSE. (Received September 27, 7.15 p.m.) PARIS, Sept. 28. The death has occurred at" St. Brieno of M. Henri Matisse, the famous French artist. He dropped dead when making the last stroke of the brush to complete a picture. M. Henri Matisse was born in tha Nord Department on December 31. 1869. Critics regard his work as essentially French in tone, free from gloom or excessive sentiment and full of charm and spirit. At the beginning of tha century tie suddenly came into prominence in Paris as one of the leaders of the group of young painters who for the second time had taken up impressionism and given it a new turn. They were derisively labelled the but some of the most notable artists of the ctay sprang from their ranks. Matisse s style o? drawing and colotu had a revolutionary influence, especially after he started a school in Paris in 19C8, to which young artists flocked from all over the world. He was an excellent teacher, who not only set a good example, but was able to" instil into his pupils tha theories on which they should base their work. Verv critical of his own efforts, he asked that they should be judged as a whole and not by single examples. Matisse played an important part in the transition from impressionism to expressionism. He did not, entirely desert the former, however, but emphasised the value of colour and harmony with the result that his pictures do not merely copy Nature, but subordinate it to the expression of his own feelings regarding his subjects. His compositions are decorative in style. After the war his manner gradually changed. His work is sometimes tinged with realism, but this is enriched by his fine sense of colour. Not, only his paintings but his drawings and sculptures are full of spirit. For the greater part of the year he lived at Nice, but ho also had* a residence io Paris.