Henri Matisse

A portrait of Henri Matisse (1933)

Henri Matisse (Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord, 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French artist known for his use of color and his original ideas.

He is mainly known as a painter, but he was also a draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. Matisse was one of the main artists who helped to create modern art early in the 20th century.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

"Matisse created brilliantly colored canvases structured by color applied in a variety of brushwork, ranging from thick impasto [thick paint] to flat areas of pure pigment, sometimes accompanied by a sinuous, arabesque-like line. [This was] the first of the avant-garde movements (1905–7), named "Fauvism" by a contemporary art critic, referring to its use of arbitrary combinations of bright colors and energetic brushwork to structure the composition".^[5]

Although he was initially called a Fauve (wild beast), he painted many traditional themes. He painted from life, and his work includes many portraits and other figurative subjects.^[6] His mastery of the expressive language of form and color, in work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.^[5]

Matisse died of a heart attack in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes.