Henri Matisse

1869 — 1954

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was a French artist, born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, who worked as a painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. He studied at the Académie Julian and under Gustave Moreau in Paris. Around 1904–1908 he led the Fauves together with André Derain, a group known for intense, non-naturalistic colour. Woman with a Hat (1905), The Joy of Life (1906), Blue Nude (1907), La Danse (1909) and The Red Studio (1911) belong to the most productive years of his career. Travel to Algeria, Spain and Morocco, and the study of Islamic decorative art, affected his use of colour and pattern. From 1917 he lived mostly in and near Nice. After an illness in 1941 he began to make large paper cut-outs, which became his main medium in his last years; The Snail dates from 1953. He also designed the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence. Matisse remained a lifelong friend and rival of Pablo Picasso and died in Nice in November 1954, aged 84.