Journey to Henri Matisse's Atelier

Born in 1869 in the small village of Le Cateau-Cambrésis in the deep North of France, not far from the Belgian border Henri Matisse was a French painter, printmaker, illustrator and sculptor. He is considered one of the most famous artists of the 20th century, an exponent of the Fauves artistic movement. In his early twenties he decided to become an artist, much to his father's disapproval, and in 1891, in Paris, he began studying art at the Académie Julian, becoming a student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Gustave Moreau. Influenced by the works of the Post-Impressionists Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Signac, but also from Japanese art, he made color the crucial element of his paintings. Another central theme in his artistic research is the representation of interiors, constantly important elements in Matisse's paintings. Especially in the last years of his life, his atelier became a space of vital importance, where daily life and artistic and creative research met. This exhibition, in connection with the acquisition of one of his most extraordinary works, Ballerina and Armchair, Black Background from 1942, explores from multiple points of view the role of the artist's studio in Matisse's paintings.