In a small weaving town in France, a young boy named Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse watched his mother paint china. He wanted to paint too.
He drew pictures in the sand, and he drew pictures in his schoolbooks.
Henri was sick in bed with appendicitis one winter. His mother gave him a box of paints, and he painted until he was well.
When Henri was a young man, he studied law. He drew pictures in his law books and on contracts, deeds, and wills.
He kept on painting, forgot about law, and left his small town to be an artist in Paris.
Henri painted pictures day after day and year after year.
He was happy, and his paintings made people happy.
But when Matisse was an old man, he fell ill—so ill…
