Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse moved from dark academic still lifes to the wild colour of Fauvism in 1905, then to the flat, decorative interiors of the 1910s and the softer Nice odalisques of the 1920s. In his last decade, after surgery left him largely confined to bed or a wheelchair, he made the paper cut-outs, gouache-painted sheets cut and arranged with assistants, including The Snail and the designs for the chapel at Vence.