A framed self portrait by Henri Matisse.

Henri Matisse (31 December 1869 to 3 November 1954) was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. Although he was initially labelled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.