Henri-Emile-Benoit Matisse was born on the 31st of December 1869 in Le Cateau-Cambrésis in France. His father was a grain and hardware merchant. He grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois and went to school at the college de Saint-Quentin. Then he moved to Paris to study law. Then in 1889 he returned to Saint-Quentin to work as a law clerk but he didn't like the job. Later in that year he got ill with a appendicitis. It was at this time while healing from his illness that he discovered the joy of painting.

1890 - Still life with books and candle

His love for painting made him move to Paris again in 1891 to study art. He failed the entrance exams for the Ecole des Beaux Arts but unofficially joined the studio of french symbolist painter Gustave Moreau in 1892. He gained enough experience this way to be accepted the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1895 and also continued to learn from Moreau. In 1897  Matisse met painter John Peter Russell. Russell introduced him to impressionism and to the work of van Gogh. It opened up a new world to Matisse. Post-Impressionists' use of color and the writing of art critic Paul Signac influenced Matisse.

1897 - Pont de Seine

1898 was a hard year when he divorced his wife and also Moreau passed away. He remarried and he became a father. 

1905 - The Roofs of Collioure

In 1905 Matisse together with other artists like Maurice de Vlaminck and Andre Derain became post impressionists. They were called the "Fauves" which means wild beasts. Therefore the style became known as fauvism. That same year Matisse met Picasso. They started a lifelong friendship and rivalry. Picasso moved towards cubism while Matisse construct object's form through the use of colour.

1907 - Three bathers

In 1907 the fauvism movement was already gone and Matisse became influenced by north african sculptures that helped him to solve pictorial problems related to painting figures. He also helped to open an art school in 1908 teaching only 8 students over the period of three years.

1910 - La Danse (2nd version)
1952 - King's sadness

1952 - The Parakeet and the Mermaid

In 1930 he started to get dissatisfied with his art works and traveled to Tahiti and many times to the United States. Instead of painting he was experimenting with book illustrations, tapestry design, and glass engraving. In 1931 he was chosen to create a mural for the Barnes Foundation in Pennsylviania which he completed in 1933.

1933 - Mural for the Barnes Foundation

In 1939 he divorced and became very ill and ended up in a wheel chair. In 1941 he was diagnosed with abdominal cancer and went through many surgeries. He started painting again an also drawing on paper cut-outs. He used the paper cut-out technique to design stained glass windows for the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, France. He died on the 3th of November 1954 in Nice.

1939 - Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence

Short into to Matisse from Stedelijk Amsterdam
Short intro to Matisse from Tate London