Matisse's work is carried by a planar use of color and tension-filled lines. In his paintings, the coloration, the playful composition and the lightness of his pictorial themes are the result of long studies. With his silhouettes (gouaches découpées) created in the 1940s - one example is the artist's book Jazz - Matisse, who was seriously ill, created a late work that brings his efforts at reduction to a conclusion and, with its colorfulness and ornamentation, is considered the high point of his artistic career. The artist considered the Rosary Chapel in Vence, which he planned and decorated, inaugurated in 1951, to be his masterpiece. His stylistic innovations influenced modern art. Thus, the abstract expressionists in the United States repeatedly referred to his works.