Matisse’s first China exhibition takes Beijing by storm

He went to Paris to pursue art in 1891. The following 10 years saw him frequent the Louvre, tirelessly copying the works of artists such as Raphael (1483-1502), Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Jean Simeon Chardin (1699-1779). During this period, the European art scene was moving on from the strictures of Impressionism which emphasizes the spontaneous and naturalistic rendering of color and light.

Avant-garde artists such as Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), Paul Gaugin (1848-1903), Vincent van Gogh (1853-90), and Georges Seurat (1859-191) were pushing painting into the symbolic realm and deeming that color could be independent of form and composition as an emotional and aesthetic bearer of meaning.

Matisse, together with his friends Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958) and Andre Derain (1880-1954), shared an admiration for van Gogh’s vivid palette and Gaugin’s primitive tastes. Like many other young artists living in the fin-de-siècle Paris, they were entranced by the simplicity and freedom they found in African artifacts.