In his youth he was most inspired by the work of three artists named Paul (Signac, Gauguin and Cézanne).
In 1887 the two artists regularly went to Asnières-sur-Seine together, where they painted such subjects as river landscapes and cafés.
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In November 1897, the Signacs moved to a new apartment in the Castel Béranger, built by Hector Guimard, and a little later, in December of the same year, acquired a house in Saint-Tropez called La Hune; there the painter had a vast studio constructed, which he inaugurated on 16 August 1898.
Pope John Paul II | Paul McCartney | Paul Simon | Paul Newman | Pope Paul VI | St Paul's Cathedral | Paul | Jean-Paul Sartre | Peter Paul Rubens | Paul Robeson | Paul Anka | St. Paul | Paul Hindemith | Paul Revere | Paul Weller | Paul Klee | Saint Paul | Paul Kelly | Paul Cézanne | John Paul Jones | Paul Ryan | Paul Gauguin | Paul Oakenfold | Jean Paul Gaultier | Paul the Apostle | Paul Keating | Paul Auster | Pope John Paul I | Paul Martin | Paul Whiteman |
Many of the Fauve characteristics first cohered in Matisse's painting, Luxe, Calme et Volupté ("Luxury, Calm and Pleasure"), which he painted in the summer of 1904, whilst in Saint-Tropez with Paul Signac and Henri-Edmond Cross.
His circle of acquaintances included Paul Signac, Émile Chartier, Charles Vildrac, Georges Duhamel, Jules Romains, Georges Rouault, and Jean Cocteau and partially supported himself by sending their works to Japan.
Some of the painters whose work is featured in the collections are Perugino, Tintoretto, Jan Brueghel the Younger, Caravaggio, Georges de La Tour, Charles Le Brun, Ribera, Rubens, Claude Gellée (known as Le Lorrain and Claude), Luca Giordano, François Boucher, Eugène Delacroix, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Paul Signac, Modigliani, Picasso, Raoul Dufy...
Besides numerous French, Italian, Dutch, and (later) Ukrainian landscapes, he also painted flowers, still life, nudes, and portraits (such as of Oleksander Dovzhenko and Volodymyr Vynnychenko, as well as portraits commissioned by the Soviet government of the French writers Henri Barbusse, Romen Rolland, and Victor Margueritte and the painter Paul Signac).
In 1898 he participated with Paul Signac, Maximilien Luce, and Théo van Rysselberghe in the first Neo-Impressionist exhibition in Germany, organized by Harry Kessler at Keller und Reiner Gallery (Berlin).