Review by Booklist Review
This picture-book biography concentrates on a period in Henri Matisse's life, during his early 70s, when he started experimenting with paper cutouts while recovering from stomach surgery. The text and illustrations soar far beyond basic facts, capturing Matisse's exuberance in finding a new way to express his artistic visions, and even the youngest audiences will be drawn in from the very start. Spare, black-ink line drawings juxtaposed against vibrant, multihued splashes of color effectively communicate Matisse's mastery of shapes and color and show how he directed his creations from his hospital bed and wheelchair. The simplicity of his designs and the excitement of experimentation and discovery are emphasized, themes that should resonate with young artists. Readers will sympathize with his dismay over waking up in his all-white, sterile hospital room and find satisfaction in his solution of creating brilliant paper cutouts and perhaps even be compelled to try some of their own. This is an inspiring choice for individual perusal, as a preamble to art class, or for storytime.--McBroom, Kathleen Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Van Haeringen follows her 2015 biography of Coco Chanel, Coco and the Little Black Dress, with an upbeat look at how Henri Matisse turned a setback into a new chapter in his artistic life. Initially described as an artist "with the sun in his tummy [whose] colors made everyone joyful," Matisse is sidelined by illness and left unable to paint. Scissors and paper in the hospital room allow Matisse to bring color into his environment, and he continued to experiment with paper cutouts after he returned home. Van Haeringen splashes the pages with vividly colored cutouts of foliage, fruit, and abstracted shapes, providing a solid visual representation of the direction Matisse's work took, and a closing note offers additional details about his illness (abdominal cancer) and the "new art form" of his cutout collages. It's a charming window into the mind-set of an artist determined to create. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-When Henri Matisse, because of illness, could no longer paint and sculpt using traditional methods, he created cutouts, a combination of sculpture and painting. This allowed the 20th-century artist to flourish in spite of challenges to his mobility. Van Haeringen imagines how Matisse discovered the process of creating cutouts in his hospital bed after his abdominal surgery. The illustrations, in pen and ink and watercolor, depict Matisse's famous red studio, his hospital room, and the transformation of the hospital room into a paper garden of colorful cutouts. The author pays tribute to Matisse by incorporating elements of his style (vivid colors and shapes) into the illustrations. This title is similar to Jeanette Winter's Henri's Scissors. However, while Winter used direct quotes from letters, van Haeringen relies on imagined dialogue. The text is not as fluid as the illustrations; the narration switches from third person to first person in the span of a single page. A brief biographical note on Matisse's art career and his later illness is included at the end of the book and provides context to some of the missing details in the main text. VERDICT An imaginative though incomplete introduction to Matisse's cutouts and an adequate addition to elementary art collections.-Jessica Cline, New York Public Library © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Van Haeringen makes creative use of bold primary colors and white space to reconstruct the world of Henri Matisse as he endures a mobility-reducing illness late in life and creates collages with cut paper. The text, translated from the Dutch, is less successful, with odd phrasing and a reliance on invented dialogue; a biographical note adds value. Not as strong as Jeanette Winter's Henri's Scissors. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
