Henri Matisse

of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was

a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter.

in northern France, the oldest son of a prosperous grain

merchant. He grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, Picardie, France.
In 1887 he went to Paris to study law, working as a court administrator in Le Cateau-Cambrésis after gaining his qualification. He first started to paint in 1889, after his mother brought him art supplies during a period of convalescence following an attack of appendicitis.
Initially he painted still-lifes and landscapes in a traditional style, at which he achieved reasonable proficiency.

Early life and education

born in 1894. In 1898 he married Amélie Noellie Parayre;

the two raised Marguerite together and had two sons, Jean (born 1899) and Pierre (born 1900). Marguerite and Amélie often served as models for Matisse.

1910, the movement as such lasted only a few years,

1904–1908, and had three exhibitions. The leaders of the movement were Matisse and André Derain. Matisse's first solo exhibition was at Ambroise Vollard's gallery in 1904, without much success.
The decline of the Fauvist movement after 1906 did not affect the career of Matisse; many of his finest works were created between 1906 and 1917.

Fauvism

Afternoon, 1902
Madras Rouge, The Red Turba, 1907,

1905

years younger than Matisse. The two became lifelong friends as

well as rivals and are often compared; one key difference between them is that Matisse drew and painted from nature, while Picasso was much more inclined to work from imagination. The subjects painted most frequently by both artists were women and still life, with Matisse more likely to place his figures in fully realised interiors.

Gertrude Stein, Académie Matisse, and the Cone sisters

oil on canvas

Goldfish Bowl), 1914, oil on canvas

a suburb of the city of Nice. His work of

the decade or so following this relocation shows a relaxation and a softening of his approach. This "return to order" is characteristic of much art of the post-World War I period, and can be compared with the neoclassicism of Picasso and Stravinsky, and the return to traditionalism of Derain.
His orientalist odalisque paintings are characteristic of the period; while this work was popular, some contemporary critics found it shallow and decorative.
In the late 1920s Matisse once again engaged in active collaborations with other artists. He worked with not only Frenchmen, Dutch, Germans, and Spaniards, but also a few Americans and recent American immigrants.

After Paris

In 1941, he underwent surgery in which a colostomy was

performed. Afterwards he started using a wheelchair, and until his death he was cared for by a Russian woman, Lydia Delektorskaya, formerly one of his models.
In the 1940s he also worked as a graphic artist and produced black-and-white illustrations for several books and over one hundred original lithographs at the Mourlot Studios in Paris.

The war years

interior, the glass windows and the decorations of the Chapelle

du Rosaire de Vence, often referred to as the Matisse Chapel.

Last years

84 in 1954. He is interred in the cemetery of

the Monastère Notre Dame de Cimiez, near Nice.

Last years