Matisse: Drawing with Scissors

Produced in the last four years of his life, when the artist was confined to his bed, and includes many of his iconic images, such as The Snail and the Blue Nudes.

The French painter, sculptor and designer, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was one of the 20th century’s most influential artists. He continued creating highly original works well into his eighties.

Matisse’s vibrant works are celebrated for their extraordinary richness and luminosity of colour. For his cut-outs he used paper that had been hand-painted with gouache, laid down in abstract or figurative patterns: ‘the paper cut-out allows me to draw in the colour… Instead of drawing the outline and putting the colour inside it… I draw straight into the colour’. The colours he used were so strong that he was advised by his doctor to wear dark glasses.