Henri Matisse Henri Matisse (December 31, 1869 – November 3, 1954) was a French artist, noted for his use of color and his fluid, brilliant, and original draftsmanship. As a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but principally as a painter, Matisse is one of the best-known artists of the twentieth century. Matisse was one of the leaders of Les Fauves, a short-lived and loose grouping of early Modern artists whose works emphasized freshness and spontaneity and the use of

deep color over the representational values retained by Impressionism. Fauvists simplified lines, made the subject of the painting easy to read,

exaggerated perspectives, and used brilliant but arbitrary colors.