© Great Works of Western Art
1869 Born at Le Cateau-Cambrésis, near Cambrai, Picardy.
1887 After working in a solicitor’s office he begins to study law in Paris.
1889 On returning to Picardy, he attends drawing classes.
1891 Studies painting at the Académie Julian in Paris.
1892 Studies at the studio of Gustave Moreau.
1894 A daughter is born to Matisse’s mistress Caroline Joblaud.
1895 Passes the entrance examination for the École des Beaux-Arts.
1898 Marries Amélie Parayre. The couple honeymoon in London.
1902 Unable to sell his work the family returns from Paris to Picardy.
1904 A one-man exhibition is mounted by Vollard. It is not a success. Stays with Paul Signac at St Tropez in the summer.
1905 Spends the summer at Collioure near the Spanish border with André Derain.
1906 Good sales at a second one-man exhibition enable Matisse to visit Algeria. Also paints again at Collioure. Meets Picasso.
1908 Publishes Notes d’un peintre.
1909 The Russian businessman Sergey Shchukin commissions two of Matisse’s masterpieces, Dance and Music.
1910 Travels to Munich for an exhibition of Islamic art. Travels to Spain to see more Moorish architecture.
1911 Visits St Petersburg and Moscow.
1917 Stays in Nice which will become his home base for much of the rest of his life.
1920 Serge Diaghilev invites him to London to work on the set designs for a Stravinsky ballet.
1930 Travels to Tahiti via New York and San Francisco.
1933 Completes murals for the Barnes Foundation in Pennsylvania.
1941 Matisse undergoes an operation for a tumour which leaves him in poor health.
1948 Begins work on designs for stained glass, and decoration for the Chapelle du Rosaire at Vence. This commission occupied him until his death.
1954 Dies in Nice.
1904 Luxe, Calme et Volupté, Paris, Musée d’Orsay
1905 The Open Window; Collioure, Washington, National Gallery of Art
1905 Landscape at Collioure , Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst
1905 Portrait of André Derain, London, Tate
1905 Portrait of Madame Matisse (the Green Line), Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst
1906 Le Bonheur de Vivre, Merion, Barnes Foundation
1906 View of Collioure, St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
1907 Blue Nude: Memory of Biskra, Baltimore, Museum of Art
1907 Le Luxe I, Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou
1908 Le Luxe II, Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst
1908 Nude Woman (Black and Gold), St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
1909 Harmony in Red (La Desserte), St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
1910 Music, St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
1910 Dance, St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
1911 The Red Studio, New York, MOMA
1911 The Painter’s Family, St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
1912 Conversation, St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
1912 Standing Riffian, St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
1913 Amélie Matisse, St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
1913 Window at Tangier, Moscow, Pushkin Museum
1916 Piano Lesson, New York, MOMA
1916 Portrait of Greta Prozor , Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou
1926 Decorative Figure on an Oriental Background, Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou
1935 Pink Nude, Baltimore, Museum of Art
1936 The Dream, Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou
1937 Woman in Blue, Philadelphia Museum of Art
1941 Still Life with Magnolia , Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou
1946 Asia, Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum
1947 Dahlias and Pomegranates, New York, MOMA
1947 Jazz, Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou
1952 The Swimming Pool, New York, MOMA
1952 The Sorrows of the King, Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou
1952 Blue Nude IV , Nice, Musée Matisse
