\paperw5100 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 French painter. \par
Henry Matisse was born at Le Cateau on December 31, 1869, to a family of shopkeepers. Launched on a legal career, Mat
isse came to painting almost by chance and it was not until 1891 that he decided to devote his life to art. The apprenticeship he served in the studio of the painter Gustave Moreau was fundamental. Moreau persuaded Matisse to study the works of the great
schools of the past in the Louvre. Fascinated by the painting of the Impressionists, Matisse traveled in the south of France, discovering its light and color. Under the influence of the Divisionist painters, with whom he became friends, he painted the p
icture \i Luxe, calme et voluptΘ\i0 in 1904. Forceful color gained the upper hand in the works shown by Matisse at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1905. The effect this caused led the art critic Louis Vauxcelles to use the term Fauves, wild beasts, to d
efine the type of painting proposed by the French artist, together with Derain, Marquet and Vlaminck. The painter spent the years 1906 and 1907 traveling in Africa and Italy, countries which made a deep impression on him. In these years he painted the
\i Still Life with Red Carpet\i0 , \i Blue Nude\i0 and \i Luxury\i0 . Between 1909 and 1911 Matisse painted two large canvases, \i Dance\i0 and \i Music\i0 , commissioned by the Russian collector Shchukin; the painterÆs imagination was caught by the Byza
ntine icons he saw on the trip that he made to Moscow to install the two pictures. The works he painted during the years of the First World War, many of them spent in Nice, reveal a state of anxiety that led the painter to accentuate the geometricization
of his figures and to adopt less brilliant colors. However, the light and color of the Mediterranean, as well as the luxurious life of the C⌠te dÆAzur, were reflected in his later works, depicting bourgeois interiors and sensual female nudes. These were
years of intense work for Matisse, who was engaged in staging exhibitions in various parts of the world and in the production of lithographs and book illustrations. In the beginning of the thirties, the artist painted the decoration for the Barnes Museu
m at Merion, once again centered on the theme of dance. Here the human figure was reduced to an almost abstract symbol, in a rapid succession of curvilinear rhythms. After the troubled years of the Second World War, Matisse enthusiastically took on the d
ecoration of the Chapel of the Rosary at Vence between 1948 and 1951. Over the same period he also painted the works entitled \i Interior with Egyptian Drape\i0 , \i The Pineapple\i0 and \i Large Red Interior\i0 . The painter, celebrated and admired all
