Henri Matisse
 Odalisque in Red Trousers,
 c.1924-1925
 Oil on canvas
 50.0 x 61.0cm
 Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris
 © Photo RMN
 © Henri Matisse,
  c.1924-25/Succession H. Matisse.
 Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney 2001

Henri Matisse worked as a law clerk in Paris before starting to paint in the winter of 1889, during his convalescence from appendicitis. He studied under the academic painter (Adolphe) William Bouguereau and then Gustave Moreau, in whose class he met several artists who would become known as ‘les fauves’ (wild beasts). Matisse became a member of the official Salon in 1896, and seemed destined for a career as a successful but conservative painter. He became influenced by Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism before turning to the works of Cézanne. Together with Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck, he was pivotal in developing the highly coloured, expressive style that came to be known as Fauvism. After the First World War, his painting became more naturalistic and intimate. He was evidently seeking to reconcile the revolutionary features of Fauvism with the easel-painting tradition – and to celebrate the proprieties and pleasures of middle-class domesticity in peace-time.

© copyright 2001, The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Australia