The latest exhibition at the Louis Vuitton Fondation in Paris is “Matisse: The Red Studio” from 4 May to 9 September 2024. It focuses on the genesis and history of Henri Matisse’s famous 1911 masterpiece called The Red Studio.
Accompanying the exhibition is “Kelly Ellsworth: Shapes and Colors, 1949-2015.” It is a landmark exhibition because it is dedicated to The Red Studio painting. American artist Kelly Ellsworth (1923-2015) was a painter, sculptor, and printmaker – just like, and inspired by, French visual artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954), so it seems fitting that the bold colourful works of both artists appear together.
But something – someone very important – is missing here.
If Henri Matisse inspired Kelly Ellsworth, who inspired Henri Matisse?
Born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Henri Matisse studied art in Paris in 1891 from the age of 22. He began as a still life and landscape artist. And then he went to Belle-Île, an island off the coast of Brittany, to visit another artist.
Living on the island was Australian artist John Russell, an impressionist and colour theory painter from Sydney. He was eleven years older than Matisse.
John Russell (1858-1930) moved to Europe in his late teens, first to take an apprenticeship in engineering, but after his father’s death and an inheritance, he studied art. He befriended fellow student Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) and painted him in 1886 – it was the first ever oil portrait of Vincent – and it now hangs in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in The Netherlands.
John went to Brittany, to Belle-Île, where he painted with French artist Claude Monet (1840-1926) in 1886. It was his second trip – his first was in 1883. Claude was on the island for a six-week holiday, and painted 39 works of the sea, the rocks, and the coastline. John’s partner, Italian Marianna Mattiocco (1865-1908) was an artist’s model – she posed for Claude Monet and also for Auguste Rodin. John and Marianna met in 1884 and, after having two children together, married in Paris in 1888.
After the wedding, John and Marianna moved permanently to Belle-Île, where he was the first non-native to settle there. And so, Henri Matisse visited John Russell on the island – in fact John hosted Henri for three summers from about 1895 to 1897.
Henri Matisse readily acknowledged John as his mentor and source of inspiration as he moved into the world of colour:
“Russell was my teacher, and Russell explained colour theory to me,” Henri said.
Henri was so inspired that he changed his style completely. He abandoned the earth tones and adopted Russell’s colour theory.
In 1908, Marianna died of cancer at the age of 42, leaving behind her six children (five sons and a daughter). She gave birth to 11 children, although only six survived. John was so distraught by her death that he destroyed about 400 of his paintings. He married American singer Caroline de Witt Merrill in 1912.
All five sons served in the First World War (1914-1918) and in 1921 John returned to Sydney, Australia, with Caroline, where they had one son together. John died in 1930, and Caroline died in Florida, America, in 1962.
Unlike his artist friends, John Russell didn’t exhibit his works. He painted for his own pleasure and sold his works privately. Soon after Marianna’s death, Auguste Rodin, who adored Marianna as his model, wrote to John:
“Your works will live, I am certain. One day you will be placed on the same level with our friends Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh …”
He wasn’t.
John’s only daughter, Jeanne, bequeathed 21 oil paintings to The Louvre in Paris, and they are now housed permanently in the Rodin Museum in Paris.
The Financial Review (23 August 2023) documents that a painting gifted from John Russell to his friend Dr William Maloney in 1897 was sold at auction. When William returned to Melbourne in 1897, after hiking in Europe with John, the painting stayed in the Russell family, where it had rarely been seen by anyone else. There were six bidders at the auction in 2023, and after the purchase, the painting has remained in Australia.
The painting is the 1897 “Marianna Russell with Goats, Goulphar; Belle-Île” – originally titled Souvenir de Belle-Île.
On 16 August 2023, at Deutscher and Hackett Fine Art Auctions in Melbourne, Australia, the John Russell painting sold for a decade-long record of USD $4 million. So, perhaps John Russell’s day had come after all.
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