Born on 31 December in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France
1887-88
Studies Law in Paris, becomes a clerk in the law practice of Maitre Duconseil in Saint-Quentin.
1891-92
Gives up law and begins to study painting at the Academy Julien in Paris. Fails the entrance exam to the École des Beaux-Arts and continues lessons with Gustave Moreau.
1894
Birth of his daughter Marguerite from his liaison with Caroline Joblaud.
1895
Begins to paint in the open air, visits exhibitions by Corot and Cézanne, which has a lasting influence on this style.
1898
Marries Amélie Noémie Alexandrine Parayre from Toulouse. Studies Turner's pictures during his honeymoon in London.
1899
His first son Jean is born. Works at the École des Beaux-Arts under the guidance of Fernand Corman, Moreau's successor. Meets André Derain and Jean Puy.
1901
Exhibits at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris for the first time and meets another future leader of the Fauve movement, Maurice de Vlaminck.
1903
Autumn Salon founded at which Matisse and his friends from the Moreau studio exhibit. Visits exhibition of Islamic art at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
1904
First solo show at the Galerie Vollard. He is one of the first painters starting to take an interest in 'primitive' art.
1905
Exhibits at Autumn Salon where he is being criticized as 'Fauves' (the wild ones) together with André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck and others because of the extremes of emotionalism, their use of vivid colors, and their distortion of shapes. Matisse is being regarded as a leader of radicalism in art. Begins to gain the approval of a number of influential critics and collectors, including the American writer Gertrude Stein and her family.
1906
Acquires an African mask. Meets Pablo Picasso at the Steins.
1908
Sarah and Michael Stein, together with others of Matisse's admirers, found a school in Paris, the Académie Matisse. Matisse starts teaching with an initial group of about ten students. The school exists for three years. Sergei Shchukin begins to collect works by Matisse, buying thirty-six by 1913, while Ivan Morozov buys another six paintings.
1909
Shchukin commissions two large works to adorn the stairwell of his house in Moscow.
1911/12
spends the winter in Morocco where he goes back in 1913, an experience which is reflected in the 1920s in his series of 'Odalisks'.
1912
Participates in the Moderner Bund exhibition in Zurich along with Jean Arp, Robert Delaunay, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Franz Marc. Visits exhibition of Persian miniatures in Paris.
1913
His work is included in the Armory Show in New York and the Berliner Secession.
1917
Spends most of his time in Nice until his death, painting local scenes. Visits Claude Monet in Giverny and Auguste Renoir in Cagnes.
1918
Exhibits with Picasso at the Galerie Paul Guillaume. Visites Pierre Bonnard in Antibes.
1920
First monograph on Matisse, by Marcel Sembat, in 'Les peintres nouveaux' published by Roger Allard.
1923
First museum of western art founded in Moscow from the Shchukin and Morozov collections, which contain 48 paintings by Matisse.
1927
Wins an award at Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh.
1928
Participates at the Venice Biennale
1930
Several works by Matisse are included in the 'Paintings in Paris from American Collections' exhibition at the newly opened Museum of Modern Art in New York.
1933
Alfred H. Barr's book on 'The Art of Henri Matisse' published in New York
1937
'Le Danseur' is the first independent work of art done in the cut-out technique
1938
Acquires a flat in the Hotel Régina in Cimiez, which he keeps to the day he dies.
1940
In Paris he begins to line up his separation from Amélie. Returns to Nice. Does little work because of his intestinal illness. Is being offered a visa to the USA, but turns it down.
1943
Settles in Vence, living in the Hotel Régina. The cut-outs (gouaches découpées) have become the core of his work – he entirely abandons painting for the time being.
1944
Draws a series of 35 heads on lithographic paper as illustrations for 'Les Fleurs du mal' by Charles Baudelaire. Matisse now lives in the villa 'La Rêve' in Vence, near Cannes.
1945
In summer, he returns to Paris. Exhibits jointly with Picasso at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
1947
Begins to design the decoration of the small Chapel of Saint-Marie du Rosaire at Vence.
1949
Returns to the Hotel Régina in Cimiez. Two rooms are knocked together to create the dimensions of the chapel in Vence. Exhibits at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. The influential critic Clement Greenberg calls Matisse the greatest living painter. Retrospective held in Lucerne.
1950
Is awarded the Grand Prize at the Venice Biennale.
1951
Major Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Chapel of the Rosary in Vence is consecrated. Matisse works on his first paintings since 1948. Matisse has attacks of asthma and angina.
1952
Matisse works on 'La piscine', his largest paper cut-out. Official opening of the Matisse Museum in his birth town Le Cateau-Cambresis.
1953
Exhibits all his paper cut-outs at Galerie Berggruen in Paris.
1954
Matisse's last work is a design for the rosette of the Union Church, Pocatop Hills, New York, commissioned by Nelson A. Rockefeller. Henri Matisse dies in Nice on November 3rd, and is buried in the cemetery in Cimiez close to his garden.
Past Gallery Exhibitions
NEW YORK From Daumier to Matisse French Master Drawings from the Collection of John C. Whitehead April 14 - May 15, 2010