Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse, a French painter during the 19th century, broke the color boundaries that long restricted artists. Out of rebellion against his contemporaries, Matisse developed a primary color scheme of wild reds, yellows, blues, oranges, purples, and greens which defied traditional earth tones in paintings. Matisse developed this color scheme through his relationship with the Fauves and his breakthrough after working with Paul Cézanne. Traveling through many phases in his work, Matisse only broke into Fauvism and his extreme color scheme after he had explored many other styles of the time such as Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Pointillism, and Realism. Even before his revolution in art, Matisse lived out a difficult childhood during which he discovered his artistic desire. Although Matisse showed no early signs of artistic talent during the first stages of childhood, he “felt for the first time ‘free, quiet, and alone’,” when given a set of paints, brushes, and do-it-yourself painting book (Russell 8). Matisse later added, “It was as if I had been called,” describing the spiritual change the art set brought within him (Russell 8). Matisse recognized that the art scene revolved around neo-impressionism, and while he began his career as a neo-impressionist painter, he soon developed a unique and radically different style. Henri Matisse rose to leadership of the Fauves out of rebellion against tradition, respect from contemporaries, and his devotion to wild color that characterized the Fauvist movement. Henri Matisse challenged 19th and 20th century art authority through his rebellion against traditional techniques and the emergent Pointillist movement. Matisse left the Academie Julian angered by the rigid techniques employed by the faculty and set out to discover new instruction. During his beginnings at the Academie Julian, Matisse realized that his instructor Adolphe failed to allow developing artists originality or a platform from which to discover personal style. Adolphe immediately turned off Matisse with his flashy demeanor. Matisse soon regarded the traditional arts at the Academy as shallow due to their lack of stimulus and cliché nature (Russell 11). Matisse criticized the traditional techniques at the Academie stating in French motto fashion, “Copiez bêtement la nature”, or in English, “Copy nature stupidly.