Henri was widely regarded as the greatest colourist of the twentieth century. He rivalled Pablo Picasso in the importance of his innovations. He emerged as a post-impressionist and first achieved his major prominence when the French movement Fauvism appeared. Although he was interested in Cubism, he rejected it and instead sough to use colour as a foundation for expressive, decorative and often monumental paintings. He once wrote he wanted to create art that would be "soothing, calming, influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair".
Still life and nude drawings remained a favourite subject of his. Also North Africa was also important influence on his work. Contributing to his collage work with a series of works using cut out shapes of colour. He is also highly regarded as a sculptor.
But of Henri's work what most interests me is his line drawings. It is similar to the style I'm interested in as its very simple line work. Often unproportionate but still affective and interesting images. The method of execution changed depending on the subject and circumstance but it wound range from charcoal, pencil to crayon. His favourite subject tended to be more evocative or erotic, often the female form, a nude figure or a beautiful head of a favourite model of the time. Matisse often made these quick line drawings to inform his paintings and sculptures, he felt that the drawings should be quick and gestural to capture the form and emotion evoked. As the most direct expression of the artists thoughts drawing often helped him to plan the compositional style of his new ideas.
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