OBJECTIVE:
Learn about the bold and
expressive use of COLOR and
LINE in FAUVISM and
MATISSE. Listen to
GERSHWIN’S symphonic jazz
changes of RHYTHM.
INTRODUCTION:
 REVIEW
 Introduce Matisse
and Gershwin
ARTIST: Henri Matisse
(1869-1954)
 Began painting at
age 21
 Happy and kind
(like his art)
NEW STYLE OF PAINTING:
 Bold and
COMPLIMENTARY
colors
 Called LES FAUVES
French for “Wild
Beasts” as insult
 Artists embraced
expressive use of
color
PAINTING: Purple Robe
with Anemones
 COLOR: emotion
 LINE: energy
fame 3.3 • H
ENRI MATISSE Purple Robe with Anemones • George Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
“When I put colors together, they have to join a living chord, like a musical chord or harmony.”
Henri Matisse
(Put materials on desks before beginning the lesson. See project outline for complete steps.)
Welcome to our third FAME lesson this year. So far we have looked at a painting by Mary Cassatt of a woman with a dog.
She painted with soft colors to give an impression of what she was seeing, known as IMPRESSIONISM. We talked about color
and made a color wheel. Then we learned about Jan Van Eyck. His style of painting is REALISM because he painted things to
look just like real life. We talked about TEXTURE and we used watercolor and salt to make textured birch trees.
Today we are going to learn about an artist named Henri Matisse (On-ree Ma-teese). We will experiment with LINE and
COLOR and we will listen to a unique musical composition by George Gershwin called Rhapsody in Blue while we work.
Henri Matisse (1869-1954) lived and worked in Paris, France until he died at the age of 85 in 1954. He began painting at the
age of 21 during a long illness. His mother bought him paint and canvas to help him pass the time while he recovered. He
said that when he opened that first box of paints, he knew that he had found what he wanted to do with his life. He gave up
his job as a law clerk and became an artist. His art is vibrant and full of joy, reflecting the kind and happy person he was in life.
After trying a number of artistic styles, he and some of his artist friends began to develop their own style of painting. They
wanted their art to be wild with color. They not only used bold colors, but experimented with COMPLIMENTARY COLORS:
orange against blue, red against green, yellow against violet to really draw attention. (You may want to show the color wheel
in the portfolio) When used next to each other, they “compliment” each other making the other stand out more.
These paintings were not very well liked when they were first shown. Matisse and his friends were called “Les Fauves” (le
fov)— French for “wild beasts”—by a leading art critic. Turn over painting. This painting is called Purple Robe with
Anemones. What about this painting might cause someone to use this description of a “wild beast?” Energy, strong or
vibrant colors, bold lines. The name fauve stuck and came to apply to all artists who used such expressive color. This art
movement is called Fauvism (foe-vism).
Matisse was considered a master of two elements of art. What do you think they are? Color and Line. COLOR is one of the
elements Matisse used to convey emotion. What feelings do you get from his use of color in the painting? Wild, bold, noisy.
Let’s look at LINE in this painting. The way lines are drawn and the shapes those lines are in can give us an impression too.
Share line visuals poster. What kinds of emotions do the lines convey in the painting? Happy, jumpy, wild, crazy, interesting.
Still life with patterns
 How many can you
find?
 Patterns convey
feelings
Art Project: Still life
drawing with pastels
 Draw outline of
vase and patterned
areas first
 Create 5-7 patterns
 Fill in with color
and design
 Cover with
transparency sheet
and add black line
COMPOSER: George
Gershwin
(1898-1937)
 Famous American
Composer
 Expressive musical
patterns that
change
MUSIC: Rhapsody in Blue
 Inspired by train
ride to create music
PATTERNS IN MATISSE’S PURPLE ROBE
When an artist paints objects that sit still (and are not
alive) the painting is called a still life. When Matisse
painted a still life, he always used a lot of patterns. Let’s
try to count how many patterns he has used in this
painting. Allow students to point out patterns, adding to
this list and keeping track in a way that’s fun for them. Use
the list to the right as a guide.
 On one side he’s made the wall yellow with orange
stripes.
 On the other side, it is a soft blue with wavy white lines.
 The floor has checks.
 The chair is red with dots.
 Her robe is purple with white lines.
 The vase has lines or stripes on it.
 Her shirt has a pattern of grey on white.
 The rug has stripes.
 The table has a pattern that looks like flowers.
 Her skirt has a pattern similar to the pattern on the
table.
Today we will create a picture in a style similar to Matisse
using vivid colors and many patterns. We will be copying
from life. You will have a vase and flowers and patterned
fabrics similar to the painting for inspiration. We will use
a pencil to lightly sketch the major elements of the scene like the vase and flowers. Next we will use a special type of
crayon, called oil pastels to fill in our sketched lines with color and pattern. How many patterns were we able to find in
Mattise’s painting? There are ten above. For your project you will make a minimum of 5 patterns and no more than 7.
While you work you will be listening to Rhapsody in Blue, an important work of symphonic jazz by a famous American
composer, George Gershwin. When he was 25 years old in 1923 he was inspired to create this unforgettable music on a
train ride to Boston. He explained: “It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang. . . [That I heard] a sort of
musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.”
See Vimeo video on fame website set to Manhattan skyline. When you listen you’ll notice the interesting changes of
RHYTHM in just one piece of music just as Matisse made many changes of COLOR and LINE in just one work of art.
When you go back to your table you will find a white piece of paper clipped to a cardboard surface, a tray of pastels to share
and a pencil. Using the pencil, lightly sketch your vase and flowers. We are only sketching, heavy pencil will show
through. If you would prefer to use the pastels directly, please do so. Later in our process we will use a transparency sheet
over your artwork and use a black marker to outline the vase and flowers and add additional detail.
There are different ways to use the oil pastels, one way is to simply color with it the way you would use a crayon. But unlike
a crayon, once you have colored with oil pastel, you can smudge the color using your finger, sort of like finger painting. This
will make the color look richer and more vivid. You can also blend more than one color together. The way to do this is to
color with one color first, and then add the next color or colors over it and smudge them. You can demonstrate this process
to the students on a sample piece of paper. Use your imagination to make your picture any colors that you want.
of America
 Changes in
RHYTHM
After you are finished coloring your picture, take the transparency sheet and clip it on top of your artwork. Using the black
marker, outline your vase and flowers and add details such as pollen spots or flower centers, veins on leaves if any drawn,
etc. When finished sign your name in the bottom corner. A volunteer will tape the transparency sheet to your art work.