Henri Matisse

Matisse uses bold, flat areas of unnatural colour — red rooms, green-shadowed faces — for pure visual joy. Outlines are simple and decorative; expect pattern on pattern and a warm Mediterranean ease.

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was a painter from France, associated with Fauvism.

An early-20th-century burst of wild, non-naturalistic colour and bold, simplified form. Fauvism →