Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse(31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French artist, is known as a expressionism, in the 20th centery. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Although he was initially labelled a Fauve (wild beast). Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse was born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord, France, he grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, Picardie, France. When he lay in bed with appendicitis, He first started to paint in 1889. In 1891, he returned to Paris to study art at the Académie Julian and became a student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Gustave Moreau.

Russell introduced him to Impressionism and to the work of van Gogh.
Since than, Matisse's style changed completely, and he would later say "Russell was my teacher, and Russell explained colour theory to me."

Matisse was influenced by the works of the post-Impressionists Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh,Signac and Japanease art.

Fauvism

The paintings expressed emotion with wild, often dissonant colors, without regard for the subject's natural colors. Matisse showed Open Window and Woman with the Hat at the Salon.

Around 1904 he met Pablo Picasso,who was 12 years younger than Matisse.The two persons became life-long friends as well as rivals or often compared.

He established a museum dedicated to his work in 1952, in his birthplace city, and this museum is now the third-largest collection of Matisse works in France.

In 1954, Matisse died,because of heart attack at the age of 84. He is interred in the cemetery of the Monastère Notre Dame de Cimiez.