Henri Matisse
(1869–1954)

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

Odalisque in Red Trousers, c.1924-1925
Oil on canvas. 50.0 x 61.0cm
Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

Matisse's 'odalisques' display the artist's passion for decorative pattern and motifs. The artist visited the French colonies in North Africa (Algeria in 1906 and Morocco in 1912–13) where the brilliant light, exotic environment and Moorish architecture inspired a new body of work. His odalisques have been described by art historian Roger Benjamin as 'elaborate fictions' in which the artist re-created the image of the Islamic harem using French models posed in his Nice apartment. The fabrics, screens, carpets, furnishings and costuming recalled the exoticism of the 'Orient' and provided a theme for Matisse's preoccupation with the figure and elaborate pattern