Matisse - Do not call me the king of Fauvism

The 21 years old Matisse had to be in hospital because of appendicitis surgery. During the time of recuperation, his mother was afraid that he would be bored and bought him a small box of pigment for him to kill time.  “What am I going to draw?” Matisse was wondering when he got the pigment. Then he suddenly saw the packing box of the paregoric, “just imitating the landscapes on the chrome of the box.” He said to himself.  When Matisse began to draw, he felt like being in heaven, free, peaceful and tranquil. And he created his first oil painting “still life with books”. He said that, “Once being bit by the painting devil, I never thought to give up.”  Matisse was born in a small town in French in 1869 and never received any painting training courses before 20. His father was a businessman operating hardware and grain, his mother was very love of art. Under the background of business family, Matisse obeyed his father’s arrangement and obtained the law degree in Paris and served as secretary at a law firm in his hometown after returning home. At that time, the only diversion of him was that participate the painting classes in the Municipal School of Art before going to work.  The unintentional gift of giving him a box of pigment accidentally launched his 64 years of painting. Matisse decided to give up the law completely and went to the Julian Academy in Paris in order to study painting.  Penniless and frustrated life was the only way that every artist must go through. In order to make a living, he had to draw decorations of the exhibitions. Even the life was plain and impoverished, but it did not dampen his enthusiasm for art at all. For the sake of buying “trios baigneuses” of Cezanne and the plaster bust of Rodin, Matisse did not hesitate to sell the dowry of his wife.  October 18, 1905, the big day that beast came out of cage in the history of Western art.  The painters of New School like Matisse, Road, Auburn and Bertrand took participation in the autumn salon exhibition in Paris. And they displayed the paintings with bold, rough brushwork and intense colors.  When the critic Louis Vauxcelles walked into the exhibition hall, he could not help himself but said:” It looks fierce and shocking.”  In the center of the exhibition hall, there also displayed a work that approximated to the style of the sculptor Donatello of the Renaissance. That was a woman bust with classic style. When looking around this whole strange scene, Louis Vauxcelles cried out in alarm:” Look, Donatello is surrounded by a group of wild animals. ”  Unexpectedly, the title “Fauvism” which shocked the world came down from then on and became the personal pronoun that these young painters made their marks. Matisse also became the king of the Fauvism and was famous in the art circle.  The Fauvism was the painting revolution after the impressionist but Matisse did not like the title. He said:” Fauvism was a trial that I put three colors red, blue and green together and compare side by side in order to make the works more expressive. It generates because of the demands in my mind but not any subjective or rational attitude.”  Therefore, this group of undisciplined fauvist separated and developed independently soon. Matisse also gradually transformed from the wildness to a subtle style, from the savage jungle to the quiet and beautiful Oriental harem world.  In his late years, when Matisse got sick again and was forced to lie on the bed because of duodenal carcinoma and gallbladder disease, he picked the scissors and craved for the arts of paper clips like a child. What he wanted to show was the lively miss of a child and that was the most pure and spiritual farewell words to the world.