Henri's Scissors by Jeanette Winter (review)

While Parker's Colorful Dreamer: The Story of Artist Henri Matisse (BCCB 1/13) focused on Matisse's overall artistic trajectory, this title chronicles the artist's late in life decline into ill health that caused his move from painting to collage work. The book traces his embrace of this new medium ("Matisse cut paper all day. . . . Paper cut-outs covered his walls") during his productive and happy final years, ending with his death ("A rainbow of shapes cradled the old artist and carried him into the heavens"). The accessibility of cut paper makes it a particularly child-appealing medium, and Matisse is certainly the grand master of the art, so audiences will be pleased to see the championing of this oeuvre. However, this is mostly limited to such celebration, since the information about Matisse and his art process is sketchy at best; the fanciful curve of the ending ("Are some of the stars we see at night coming to us from Henri's scissors?") is sentimental and confusing. Additionally, the subdued backgrounds of the illustrations, especially the beige of the pre-collage chronicle, are dry and distancing, turning Matisse's vibrant hues into muted wallpaper. When Winter's more usual vivid shades come to the fore, the art is strong and vigorous, with a hat-tip to Matisse himself in the form of the open window (a famous Matisse subject) that allows the old man to view the sea; the playfulness and imaginative employment of actual Matisse collage shapes effectively convey the way art and life vision can blend together. This will need completion with Parker's biography or another Matisse work, but it could be a prompt for an art project—or even some lively room redecoration.