Matisse

It's the birthday of painter Henri Matisse (1869), born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France. As a child and a young man, he had no interest in art. He went to law school in Paris and never visited a single museum while he was there. Had it not been for a case of appendicitis, he might never have become an artist. Bedridden for several weeks during his recovery, he took up painting at the suggestion of a neighbor, as a way to pass the time. It was a revelation. He later said: "From the moment I held the box of colors in my hands, I knew this was my life. I threw myself into it like a beast that plunges towards the thing it loves."

His later life was full of hardships. During World War II, his ex-wife, Amélie, was imprisoned for six months because of her job as a typist for the Communist underground. His daughter, Marguerite, was active in the French resistance, and she was captured and tortured by the Gestapo. She managed to escape from a train that was taking her to a concentration camp.

Matisse developed severe stomach pains that were eventually diagnosed as intestinal cancer. In 1941, he required a colostomy, and spent most of his time in bed or in a wheelchair. After his surgery, he felt a burst of creativity; he was unable to stand long enough to paint, so he began working in cut-paper collages, a technique he called "painting with scissors." He hired a temporary night nurse, a young student named Monique Bourgeois. The two became close friends, and she sat for him a few times. After she left his employment, she became a nun, and he eventually financed a chapel for her order. His last major project was designing the interior and stained glass windows of the Chapelle du Rosaire.