Lithograph and stencil on vélin paper. Paper size: 18.25 x 13.25 inches. Excellent condition. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the folio, Douze Contemporains, 1959. Published by Éditions d'Art du Lion, Paris; rendered by Daniel Jacomet, Paris; printed by l'atelier Jacomet, December 1959. Excerpted from the folio, This album finished printing in December 1959 drawn to CMLXX examples numbered from I to CMLXX and XXX non-commerce examples numbered from I to XXX, was directed by Daniel Jacomet. Typography of L'Imprimerie Union in Paris. HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954) One of the undisputed masters of 20th century art, was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. Although he was initially labeled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.