1869-1954. French painter, sculptor,
illustrator, and designer; on of the most
original creative forces in early
20th-century art. His work concentrates on
designs that emphasize curvaceous surface
patterns, linear arabesques, and brilliant
colour. Subjects include odalisques (women of
the harem), bathers, and dancers; later works
include pure abstracts, as in his collages of
coloured paper shapes and the designs 1949-51
for the decoration of a chapel for the
Dominican convent in Vence, near Nice. In
1904 Matisse worked with Signac in the south
of France in a Neo-Impressionist style. The
following year he was the foremost of the
Fauve painters exhibiting at the Salon
d'Automne, painting with bold brushstrokes,
thick paint, and strong colours. He soon
abandoned conventional perspective in his
continued experiments with colour, and in
1910 an exhibition of Islamic art further
influenced him towards the decorative. He
settled in the south of France in 1914. His
murals of The Dance 1932-33 (Barnes
Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania) are
characteristic.