Henri Matisse was born on 31st December 1869.

He trained as a lawyer, but decided to become a painter.

At the beginning of his career, Matisse focused on painting landscapes and still-life in a traditional style.

In the early 1900s Matisse developed a new style. He began to paint with bright masses of colours that were freely applied.

He used the colours to express emotion often using colours that had nothing to do with the natural colours of the subject.

In 1905 Matisse, together with fellow artists Maurice de Vlaminck and Andre Derain, exhibited their new style to the world. One critic called them "fauves", which meant "wild beasts". The name stuck and their style of art was called Fauvism. 

Matisse’s style evolved and he began to use strong colours and lose some of the realistic qualities of Impressionism.

As Matisse became older, he began to work with brightly coloured paper and used scissors to cut out shapes, animals, leaves, dancers and flowers and then arrange them.

Matisse died of heart failure in 1954. He was 84.

Some of his paintings have sold for over $20 million.