--- title: Henri Matisse: Classic Photos of the Modernist Master description: Classic photographs of Henri Matisse -- most of which never ran in LIFE magazine -- by the great Ukrainian-born photographer Dmitri Kessel canonical: https://time.com/3507467/henri-matisse-classic-photos-of-the-modernist-master-1951/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-13T15:30:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:24.170Z og:title: Henri Matisse: Classic Photos of the Modernist Master og:description: Classic photographs of Henri Matisse -- most of which never ran in LIFE magazine -- by the great Ukrainian-born photographer Dmitri Kessel og:url: https://time.com/3507467/henri-matisse-classic-photos-of-the-modernist-master-1951/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe3f7d16df3a20a1/698760d0e20a8760bca8277a/141014-henri-matisse-05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3138 og:image:height: 1765 og:image:alt: Henri Matisse 1951 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Henri Matisse: Classic Photos of the Modernist Master twitter:description: Classic photographs of Henri Matisse -- most of which never ran in LIFE magazine -- by the great Ukrainian-born photographer Dmitri Kessel twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe3f7d16df3a20a1/698760d0e20a8760bca8277a/141014-henri-matisse-05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # LIFE With Matisse: Portraits of a Modernist Master > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Worth Your Time: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Worth Your Time is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more. Worth Your Time is a curated guide to the culture worth knowing, from the biggest conversations of the moment to the books, shows, ideas and discoveries worth your attention. Culture editor Eliza Berman taps TIME's collective taste and perspective to surface what is worth watching, reading, talking about and sharing, and why. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 13, 2014 3:30 PM UTC  Henri Matisse, 1951. Henri Matisse, 1951. Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 13, 2014 3:30 PM UTC In 1951, a show opened at MoMA in New York that LIFE magazine celebrated as “a monumental exhibit \[that\] crowns a lifetime of creativity by the 81-year-old modern master,” [Henri Matisse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri%5FMatisse). Here, recalling that 1951 show, LIFE.com offers a few photographs of Matisse — most of which never ran in LIFE — by the great Ukrainian-born photographer Dmitri Kessel. “Over the past 50 years,” LIFE reminded its readers in its Nov. 26, 1951, issue, “Matisse has poured forth a profusion of joyous paintings which have given a startling new shape and brilliance to the face of art and which have won him a top rank among the great modern masters, Picasso, Braque and \[the today far less-well-known Georges\] Rouault.” Of the fastidious, bespectacled, quietly revolutionary artist who was once denounced as “more dangerous than absinthe,” LIFE wrote that, in his studio on the French Riviera, Matisse “continued to work diligently, absorbed in his quest of an art that ‘pure and calm, free of disturbing subject mater . . . a mean of soothing the soul. . . .'” All these years later, LIFE.com pays tribute that contrarian, decades-long quest — an approach to the creative life utterly, refreshingly free of the noise, hype and sensationalism evident in so much high-profile art today. ---  Henri Matisse sculpts a nude in clay, Nice, France, 1951. Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  In 1951, Henri Matisse sits in the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, France -- a building he designed and decorated, and that he considered his life's masterpiece. Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Henri Matisse sketches an unidentified model in Nice, France, 1951. Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Henri Matisse sculpts a nude at home in Nice, France, 1951. Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Henri Matisse, 1951. Dmitri Kessel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Henri Matisse outside the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence (Chapel of the Rosary), France, 1951. 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