Who Was Henri Matisse?
Henri Matisse was a French artist who lived from 1869 to 1954. He is known as one of the greatest colorists of the 20th century, which means he was a master at using color in exciting ways!
Matisse had a long and amazing art career. He started as a painter, creating bold, colorful paintings that shocked the art world. His colors were so bright and wild that critics called him a fauvist, which comes from the French word fauve meaning wild beast!
But the most exciting part of Matisse's story happened near the end of his life. When he was in his 70s and 80s, he became too sick to stand at an easel and paint. But did he stop making art? No way! Instead, he invented a whole new art form: cut-outs!
Matisse had assistants paint large sheets of paper in bright, bold colors. Then he cut shapes out of the colored paper with scissors and arranged them into beautiful compositions. He called it painting with scissors!