Henri Matisse was a French artist-painter, draftsman, and sculptor. He spent his childhood in Bohain-en-Vermandois. He began his professional life as a clerk for a Master of the Council in Saint-Quentin. At 20, following an appendicitis attack, he was forced to remain bedridden for many weeks. To occupy his days, his mother offered him a paint box. He then discovered the pleasure of painting. Upon his recovery, while rejoining his studies, he enrolled in the drawing course at the Quentin de La Tour school intended for textile designers in the local industry. In 1890, Henri definitively abandoned law studies to devote himself to painting, and the following year, he moved to Paris. After being admitted to the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, he attended Gustave Moreau's studio in 1895. There he met Georges Rouaullt, Albert Marquet and visited exhibitions by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot and Paul Cézanne. He was the leader of Fauvism; Pablo Picasso considered him his great rival and nevertheless friend.