Lithograph on vélin Johannot d’Annonay paper. Paper Size: 12.83 x 9.84 inches. Excellent condition. Inscription: Signed in the plate and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the folio, Hommage No.2, Dessins de Matisse, 1944. Published by Hommage, Monaco, under the direction of Philippe Fontana, Éditeur, Monaco; printed by Imprimerie Robaudy, Cannes, June, 1944. Excerpted from the folio, This issue of HOMMAGE is printed in M numbered examples of I to M, and L examples, H.C. 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.