Henri Matisse Art Literacy Presentation

Artist Biography:  

Henri Matisse was born on December 31^st 1869. That’s New Years’ Eve 147 years ago.  He was born in France where his parents owned a flower shop. Henri went to school to become a lawyer. When he was 21 yrs old his mom gave him some art supplies and he started painting and really loved it. He then left his law career and enrolled in an art school. Henri got married in 1898. He and his wife had 1 daughter and 2 sons. He got to know many other artists and was always changing his techniques. Henri became very famous for using extraordinarily bold colors. Later in life, as his health began to fail and he had to be in a wheelchair, Matisse turned to making collages. He called this colorful cut-out collage technique, “painting with scissors.” Henri died at the age of 85.  

Show paintings:

Still Life with Books-#3

1-       Painted in 1890, this is one of Henri’s first paintings

2-       Ask the students… What objects do you see? What colors do you see? When he first began he used still objects (instead of people), and dull dark colors.

3-      Notice the tablecloth, Henri liked to use patterns in his paintings

Woman with the Hat-#4

1-       Painted in 1905. This is Henri’s wife, Amelie.

2-       What colors do you see in this picture? What colors are in the woman's face? Is your face made of many different colors?

3-      Henri and his painter friends decided they liked to use lots of different bright colors…colors that weren’t the “right” colors for things.  People said the paintings looked like “wild beasts.” These painters then called themselves “Fauves”- which means “wild beasts” in French.

La Gerbe-#5

1-       Created in 1953. This is one of Henri’s cut-out collages.

2-       Ask the students…What does this look like to you? Any answer is right.

3-      Notice how the pieces are laid out. Planning the placement of the pieces in a collage is called a composition.

Sorrows of the King-#6

1-       Created in 1952. Another cut-out “painting with scissors”

2-       This is said to be Henri’s “farewell to art.” He is the black shape holding a guitar in place of his brushes. This is the artist saying goodbye to his studio.

3-      Ask the students…What do you see? What colors did Henri use? Talk about how he must have had to plan where to put all the different pieces.    

    

Project:

What you need:

·         Construction paper of different colors

·         Scissors

·         Glue stick

·         Pattern shapes (to trace)

Step-1: Have the students each get out their glue stick, scissors, and pencil at their seat.

Step 2: Pass out a black background page to each student.

Step-3: Help students decide whether they will trace shapes to cut OR think of their own designs to cut out. Place cardboard shapes and construction paper where students can choose them.

Step-4: Students will cut out all their shapes and arrange them in a collage on their          paper…before gluing, to see how things will lay out (this is composition).

Step-5: Each student will glue their collage pieces down to their background page.

Step-6: Have each student sign it on the front like an artist, somewhere that it will show at least a little bit (in a corner, bottom, side…)

*Ask the teacher if she’d like them displayed or sent home*