Henri Matisse: Jazz & Poetry on Paper (High School and Middle School)

In the classroom the instructor will:
1.    Start by reading “Invitation au Voyage” by Charles Baudelaire aloud to the group.
2.    Ask students to come up with adjectives or images that the poem brought to mind. Compile these on the whiteboard/chalkboard.
3.    Introduce Matisse’s Luxe, Calme et Volupté to the class – either as a handout or projected. Discuss how students would describe the overall tone or feeling of the image. Relate those ideas to elements of art and design like color, shape, and composition.  Compare those ideas to the discussion of the earlier poem.
4.    Explain that Matisse was often inspired by poetry and that this particular work of art takes its title from the poem “Invitation au Voyage”. Ask students to reflect on how Matisse chose to capture that poem visually and whether they would have done anything differently. 
5.    Explain that students will be creating their own visual response to a poem of their choice.
6.    Distribute copies of other poems by Baudelaire (see resources section)
7.    After students read and reflect on their poem, ask them to come up with adjectives or phrases the feel capture the spirit of the poem. 
8.    From those words and ideas, students will create their own work of art they feel is reflective of the poem.
9.    Facilitate and ask questions as needed.
10.    After students have finished their work of art, have students create text for the poem itself – it can be handwritten or typed depending on available resources and/or their sense of what would best fit the poem itself.
11.    Have students share their work and, if possible, display the poems and images together as a unit (much as Matisse has done in his own art books).
 

Ask students to describe why they created the work of art they did and how it relates back to the poem they selected. Make reference to specific elements of art and principles of design.