Henri-Emile-Benoit Matisse - (1869 - 1954) was a French artist, known for his use of color and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, sculptor, and painter. Matisse was born in Le Cateau-Cambresis, Nord, France, he grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, Picardie, France. In 1887 he went to Paris to study law, working as a court administrator in Le Cateau-Cambresis after gaining his qualification. He first started to paint in 1889, and decided to become an artist, disappointing his father. In 1891, he returned to Paris to study art at the Acadamie Julian and became a student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Gustave Moreau. Matisse is regarded, along with Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three seminal artists of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. His mastery of the expressive language of color and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.