Henri Matisse

Matisse, Henri (1869–1954), French painter, sculptor, and lithographer. He is regarded, with Picasso, as one of the 2 most important artists of the 20th century. He was a leader of the fauves and was noted for his brilliant, expressive use of color in such paintings as The Green Line (1905) and Landscape at Callioure (1905). Earlier he had explored impressionism, as in his painting The Dinner Table (1897). In his last years he created abstract compositions out of handpainted cut paper, a technique he called “drawing with scissors.” From 1948 to 1951 he designed and decorated the Dominican chapel at Vence, France.