Who Am I?

1. I was born on December 31, 1869, in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, in northern France. I grew up in a comfortable bourgeois household. I was expected to pursue a solidly middle-class career, like law or business.

2. At twenty, after a bout of appendicitis laid me low, my mother bought me a set of paints. As I painted, I discovered a kind of paradise. I began to dream of an entirely different career.

3. In 1905, I shocked the art world by unleashing wild, untamed colors on canvas. My daring strokes defied tradition and sparked the movement of Fauvism.

4. I wandered to sunlit Mediterranean coasts where light danced with shadow. These vibrant hues transformed my palette and ignited my creative spirit.

5. When illness confined me in later life, I reinvented my craft. I turned to paper cutouts—a new language of shape and form—to continue expressing my vision.

6. I never limited myself to one medium. I painted, sculpted, and printed—each creation a defiant act against the mundane, a pursuit of beauty in every form. Find out who I am in the final slide!

The mystery is unveiled: I am the visionary of color and form, the pioneer of Fauvism. I am Henri Matisse.