Henri Matisse, French painter, illustrator, engraver and sculptor, is a key figure in the history of 20th century art^E century.

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At the age of 20, an attack of appendicitis immobilized him for several weeks. Although until now he had shown no particular interest in art, he asked his parents for a can of paint to keep busy. As soon as he recovered, he enrolled in the drawing course at the Quentin-de-La Tour school. In 1892, he moved to Paris where he met Albert Marquet.

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In 1895, Matisse joined the Beaux-Arts and studied in the studio of Gustave Moreau, who predicted: “You will simplify painting.” In 1897, he turned to impressionism and discovered the works of Gauguin, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh at the Luxembourg Museum. This artistic emulation gave new impetus to his art, characterized by warm colors and a strict organization of the elements of his canvas.

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Matisse adopted pointillist techniques but gradually abandoned them in favor of large areas of bright colors. Exposing this new form of expression in the company of André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck at the Salon des Independants in 1905, he received, like his friends, the nickname of tawny. A true master of Fauvism and a great visual artist, he also devoted himself to sculpture, engraving, collage and the production of stained glass windows.

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The Orangerie Museum in Paris presented a unpublished exhibition dedicated to Matisse's drawings from the 1930s.