Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse (1869–1954) is celebrated alongside Picasso as one of the defining figures of modern art. He believed that art should be like “a good armchair,” a place of rest and joy.

The Beginnings of a New Way of Painting. Henri Matisse and André Derain painted together in the South of France in 1905 in the small and colorful town of Collioure. The resulting paintings radically changed the way artists use color.

When we talk about Matisse, we have to include a lesson on line as it was essential to his work. Matisse loved to draw and did so every day. He aimed for efficiency and how to describe something with the fewest and the most expressive lines.

The Influence of Persia and Morocco. Two experiences in quick succession transformed Matisse's painting around 1911: an exhibition and a journey to Morocco. Together, these encounters pushed his work toward a new flatness, an obsession with pattern, and a palette of startling, vivid intensity.

A Creative Rivalry and a Lifelong Dialogue. Picasso and Matisse had one of the most consequential friendships in art history, a relationship built on mutual admiration, intense rivalry, and genuine creative dialogue that spanned roughly half a century.