Henri Matisse
October lesson Plan for Third Grade
Drawing with Scissors
Biographical information
Henri Matisse was born in France in 1869. His father sold seeds and grain and his mother was a dressmaker. Matisse was married and had three children. He loved to travel and explore other countries and often was influenced by those cultures and their folk art. He died in 1954 when he was 85! At the age of 20 Henri was studying to be a lawyer when he became very ill. Matisse had surgery and was bedridden. Henri was very bored just lying around so his mother gave him a box of paints and brushes so he would have something to do. When he recovered he discovered that he had a new passion for art and would pursue art school.
Matisse only attended art school for a short time because he did not feel that he was being challenged. As a result, Matisse decided to open his own school and show other artists his painting techniques. Art critics thought Henri and his friends painted like "Fauves" (a French word for wild beasts) because they used bold bright and unusual colors. Critics thought the "Fauvists" would never be successful artists, but they were wrong. Henri Matisse worked on his art for over 60 years and became one of the greatest artists of all time! Throughout his lifetime, he suffered from poor health, but that never stopped him from creating art! Henri Matisse is considered the most important French artist of the 20th century, and along with Pablo Picasso, one of the most influential modernist painters of the last century. While much of Matisse’s career was focused on drawing and painting, he was also a draughtsman, printmaker, sculptor and worked with collage.
Henri Matisse is considered the most important French artist of the 20th century, and along with Pablo Picasso, one of the most influential modernist painters of the last century. While much of Matisse’s career was focused on drawing and painting, he also worked with lithographs, sculpture and collage.
Today we are going to be focusing on his paper cut outs period (collage). Late in Matisse’s career he became ill and was confined to a wheelchair. At this point in his life he found it difficult to continue painting and drawing like he had in the past. However, Matisse's extraordinary creativity was not dampened for long, as he began his paper cutout period, which he later referred to as, “a second life.” This period was not the ending of his painting and sculpture career; instead he called this style of art “painting with scissors.” Experimentation with cut-outs offered Matisse many opportunities to create a new, aesthetically pleasing environment: "You see as I am obliged to remain often in bed becauseof the state of my health, I have made a little garden all around me where I can walk... There are leaves, fruits, a bird." In this quote, he refers to the cutouts that he arranged in nature scenes on his bedroom walls.
Collage is the process of assembling or layering images to create a new piece of art. The images are adhered to the desired surface using a paste like material. Matisse used this process to create new pieces of art and also to add cutout images to his paintings. Throughout this phase of Matisse’s career he continued to be inspired by nature and used vibrant colored paper cut outs to create vast gardens and other nature inspired scenes. Now that we know a little about Henri Matisse, lets get started on a collage of our own.
Vocabulary Words
Shape: In art, a shape is formed when a line meets itself and can be geometric or organic.
Collage: an artistic composition made of various materials (e.g. paper, cloth, or wood) glued on a surface.
Design: a preplanned arrangement of shapes
Discussion Questions
Here are a few questions to ask the students while showing examples of Matisse works of art.
What is a collage?
How would you describe the colors of a Matisse cutout paper artwork?
What shapes has Matisse used and what ideas do you see in his shapes?
How has Matisse used color? Are the colors contrasting or the same?
Here are some questions to ask the students after they have completed their project. If time allows, they can even use their own works of art to answer the following.
How is this artwork like the ones we just saw? How is it different?
What other project could you create using this technique?
Did they like creating art this way?
Basically a brief reflection on what they had created. This is designed to be a fun activity that introduces children to a new style of art.
Paper Cutouts – Student Name
Materials: Project example, large sheet of white construction paper, scraps or half sheets of colored paper, and glue stick (student will provide).
Read – No book is provided for this lesson.
Play – From Matisse to You, Songs in the Key of Art by Greg Percy
Trifold board with artist examples
Demonstrate the lesson by following these step-by-step instructions. Like Matisse, the students will be creating their cutouts free hand. They should not use a pencil to draw their letters. Instead they should be inspired by movement and envision the letters in their mind as they twist and turn the paper. The letters do not need to be uniform in size or color. Encourage them to be creative. They can also glue large pieces of colored paper first and then layer their letters on top.
- Give each student a large piece of white construction paper. Let students choose other colors of paper from the provided materials.
- Using their own scissors and glue stick they can start cutting out their name. Encourage them to do all of the cutting first and then play with the arrangement before gluing. Please keep all large scrap paper pieces in bin so that other classes can use them.
Allow time for the students to share their work with each other.