Matisse had nearly a decade of radical painting under his belt in 1906, while Picasso was just emerging from his blue and rose reveries, and about to explode into Cubism. Matisse was the leader of the “fauves,” or “wild beasts,” as they were known, for their use of “brutal” colors.

Fauvism

But one of the first artists to step away from traditional painting altogether was French artist Henri Matisse, who led the Fauvism movement in the 1900s. The abstract, gestural shapes depicting the human form showed the American art scene a new kind of painting and arguably led to Cubism, Expressionism, and Futurism.

Matisse and Picasso may not have met, but they were already so aware of each other’s progress that they were both accelerating their creative pace and jockeying for position. No one has ever looked at Matisse’s painting more carefully than I; and no one has looked at mine more carefully than he.”

A Matisse painting depicting one of the artist’s favorite models fetched $33.6 million tonight at Christie’s, breaking the previous auction record for the artist in a lively kickoff to the fall auction season.

84 years (1869–1954)

Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (French: [ɑ̃ʁi emil bənwɑ matis]; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter.

Matisse was heavily influenced by art from other cultures. Having seen several exhibitions of Asian art, and having traveled to North Africa, he incorporated some of the decorative qualities of Islamic art, the angularity of African sculpture, and the flatness of Japanese prints into his own style.

Deceased (1869–1954)

French

1008 artworks

Written by Matisse himself in a letter to a friend, this proud and poetic comment arises out of a period in his late years during which he suffered partial blindness. Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse (1869-1954) was undoubtedly a pioneering colourist, and a figure guiding modern art.

Coping with the difficulties of old age and illness in his later years, Matisse turned to “drawing with scissors,” making his famous cut-out artworks. Henri Matisse created some of his best-known art in the final decade of his life, and he made it from the simplest materials: shapes cut from colorful sheets of paper.

He said he was drawing with scissors, cutting directly into colour, abolishing the conflicts – between colour and line, emotion and execution – that had slowed him down all his life.

During this time he made his famous cut-outs by ‘drawing with scissors’; cutting into brightly coloured sheets of paper and helped by his assistants who arranged the paper cut-outs on the wall of his studio until he was happy with the composition.

Matisse also famously explored images of interiors, which might include one or several figures — sometimes foraying into genre painting — or none at all. Often he would depict a large window, which would provide the opportunity to contrast indoor and outdoor views.