Henri Matisse born December 31, 1869 in Cateau-Cambrésis, and died November 3, 1954, in Nice, is a French painter, designer, engraver and sculptor. A major figure of the twentieth century, his influence on the art of the second part of the century is considerable by the use of simplification, stylization, synthesis and color as the sole subject of painting, both for many figurative or abstract painters who will claim to him and his discoveries. He was the leader of Fauvism, and is one of those painters who at the beginning of the 20th century like Derain, Van Dongen, Dufy, Marquet ... separate the color from its reference to the object and thus release its expressive force. Provocative reaction to Impressionism, they also intend to respond violently to the challenge of photography, painting being much more than the representation of nature. From Pablo Picasso, who was his friend and considered him as his great rival, to Andy Warhol who "wanted to be Matisse", all the painters of the twentieth century were confronted with the glory and the genius of Matisse.