Printable sheet
Matisse cat and goldfish: a cat dips its paw into a bowl of three fish, surrounded by fruit, plants and bold patterns. An art printable; free PDF.
Printable sheet
Free for personal and educational use
Download PDFPrintA cat on a round table with fruit, reaching into a fishbowl with three fish, in front of a window with a tree, leaves and backdrops of circles and zigzags.
Use bright reds and oranges for the fish and fill the patterns with bold, contrasting colors.
Invent your own pattern with circles, stripes and zigzags to decorate a wall.
Matisse trained as a lawyer before he decided to become a painter.
This Matisse cat and goldfish scene is inspired by French painter Henri Matisse, who painted a cat beside a bowl of red fish in 1914. Matisse is celebrated as one of the great masters of color in the twentieth century and one of the most influential artists ever.
In the early 1900s, Matisse and a group of friends showed paintings with colors so bold and unrealistic that a critic called them wild beasts, or fauves in French. That nickname gave its name to fauvism, a movement that used color to express feelings. A tree could be red and a face could be green.
Goldfish swim through several of Matisse's paintings from those years. He loved their brilliant color and the calm way they moved through the water. Many of these works pair the fishbowl with plants, windows and patterned fabrics, because Matisse adored decorative designs.
When he grew older and became ill, Matisse could no longer stand at an easel for long, so he found a new way to create. The cut-paper artworks from that time, full of playful shapes and cheerful colors, still inspire artists and kids around the world. For Matisse, art was meant to bring calm and joy.
