Description
The Dance II Classic Art Reproduction by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) in the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. A scene of pure pleasure, The Dance II (1910) was commissioned by a Russian collector who said he found it of “such nobility that I am resolved to brave our bourgeois opinion and hang on my staircase a subject with nudes!” Frenchman Matisse’s unrivalled sensitivity to line and the beauty of coloring is evident in this striking work. Our canvas replica reveals hand-applied brush strokes enriched with a beaded goldtone hardwood frame with a brass museum plate. No rush shipping. Henri Matisse (1869-1954). Henri Matisse was a French painter and one of the best-known artists of the 20th century due to his use of color and extraordinary draftsmanship. He originally moved to Paris to study law, but during a period of convalescence because of appendicitis, Matisse took up painting, and discovered, as he called it, a kind of paradise. He enrolled at Acadmie Julien in Paris and was a student of William Adolph Bouguereau. Matisse paintings also display the influences of the post-impressionists like Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh. Color was the defining element of Matisse s paintings from the start, as can be seen in The Dessert: Harmony in Red, painted in 1908. His penchant for bright, expressive colors developed after he moved south towards the French Riviera in 1905. Controlled shapes and flat lines, and favoring expression over detail, characterize Mattise paintings from this time. Matisse found a friend and rival in his younger contemporary, Pablo Picasso. The two are often compared for their depictions of women and still life; however, Matisse painted from nature, while Picasso painted from imagination. In 1941, Henri Matisse was diagnosed with cancer, but he continued creating art by cutting out paper collages. His final paintings, sculptures and other artwork from his final years depict a softening and return to order common from this time.
