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Henri Matisse

51 quotes

“I see with horror that the 'Salon Automne' is looming, for I haven't got, and shan't have, all I meant to be able to show there, the big stillife ['Harmony in Red'] has taken up so much of my time; but since I am content with the outcome, I tell myself one can't hope to be fast as well as good.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1869 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Sergei Shchukin [the Russian buyer of his still-life The Dessert: Harmony in Red (The Red Room), that year], 6 August 1908; as quoted by w:Hilary Spurling, The Unknown Matisse: Man of the North, 1869 – 1908, P…
“Rules have no existence outside of individuals: otherwise a good professor would be as great a genius as Racine.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Underlying this succession of moments which constitutes the superficial existence of beings and things, and which is continually modifying and transforming them, one can search for a truer, more essential character, which the artist will seize so that he may give to reality a more lasting interpretation.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For me all is in the conception. I must therefore have a clear vision of the whole from the beginning.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I simply try to put down colours which render my sensation.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is an impelling proportion of tones that may lead me to change the shape of a figure or to transform my composition. Until I have achieved this proportion in all the parts of a composition I strive towards it and keep on working. Then a moment comes when all the parts have found their definite relationships, and from then on it would be impossible for me to add a stroke to my picture without having to repaint it entirely.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or disturbing subject matter, an art which could be for every mental worker, for the businessman as well as the man of letters, for example, a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The simplest means are those which best enable an artist to express himself. His means of expression must derive almost all of necessity from his temperament.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Suppose I want to paint a woman's body: first of all I imbue it with grace and charm, but I know that I must give something more. I will condense the meaning of this body by seeking its essential lines. The charm will be less apparent at first glance, but it must eventually emerge from the new image which will have a broader meaning, one more fully human.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What I am after, above all, is expression. Sometimes it has been conceded that I have a certain technical ability but that, my ambition being limited, I am unable to proceed beyond a purely visual satisfaction such as can be procured from the mere sight of a picture. But the purpose of a painter must not be conceived as separate from his pictorial means, and these pictorial means must be the more complete (I do not mean complicated) the deeper is his thought. I am unable to distinguish between the feeling I have for life and my way of expressing it.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Expression, to my way of thinking, does not consist of the passion mirrored upon a human face or betrayed by a violent gesture. The whole arrangement of my picture is expressive. The place occupied by figures or objects, the empty spaces around them, the proportions – everything plays a part. Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the various elements at the painter’s disposal for the expression of his feelings”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a picture every part will be visible and will play the role conferred upon it, be it principal or secondary. All that is not useful in the picture is detrimental.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Composition, the aim of which is expression, alters itself according to the surface to be covered. If I take a sheet of paper of given dimensions I will jot down a drawing which will have a necessary relation to its format – I would not repeat this drawing on another sheet of different dimensions, for instance on a rectangular sheet.. ..a drawing must have a power of expansion which can bring to life the space which surrounds it.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want to reach the state of condensation of sensations which constitutes a picture. Perhaps I might be satisfied momentarily with a work finished at one sitting, but I would soon get bored looking at it; therefore, I prefer to continue working on it so that later I may recognize it as a work of my mind..”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I try to condense the meaning of this body [of a woman] by drawing its essential lines. The charm will then become less apparent at first glance, but in the long run it will begin emanate from the new image. This image at the same time will be enriched by a wider meaning, a more comprehensively human one, while the charm, being less apparent, will not be its only characteristic. It will be merely one element in the general conception of the figure.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If upon a white canvas I jot down some sensations of blue, of green, of red – every new brush stroke diminishes the importance of the preceding ones. Suppose I set out to paint an interior.. .If I paint a green near the red, if I paint in a yellow floor, there must still be between this green, this yellow, and the white of the canvas a relation that will be satisfactory to me. But these several tones mutually weaken one another. It is necessary, therefore, that the various elements that I use be so balanced that they do not destroy one another..”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am forced to transpose until finally my picture may seem completely changed when, after successive modifications, the red has succeeded the green as the dominant color. I cannot copy nature in a servile way, I must interpret nature and submit it to the spirit of the picture – when I have found the relationship of all the tones the result must be a living harmony of tones, a harmony not unlike that of a musical composition”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The chief aim of color should be to serve expression as well as possible. I put down my colors without a preconceived plan. If at the first step and perhaps without my being conscious of it one tone has particularly pleased me, more often then not when the picture is finished, I will notice that I have respected this tone while I have progressively altered and transformed the others. I discover the quality of colors in a purely instinctive way.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To paint an autumn landscape I will not try to remember what colors suit this season, I will only be inspired by the sensation that the season gives me; the icy clearness of the sour blue sky will express the season just as well as the tonalities of the leaves. My sensation itself may vary, the autumn may be soft and warm like a protracted summer or quite cool with a cold sky and lemon yellow trees that give a chilly impression and announce winter.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What interests me most is neither still life nor landscape but the human figure. It is through it that I best succeed in expressing the nearly religious feeling that I have towards life. I do not insist upon the details of the face. I do not care to repeat them with anatomical exactness. Though I happen to have an Italian model whose appearance at first suggests nothing but a purely animal existence, yet I succeed in picking out among the lines of his face those which suggest that deep gravity which persists in every human being.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A work of art must carry in itself its complete significance and impose it upon the beholder even before he can identify the subject-matter. When I see the Giotto frescoes at Padua I do not trouble to recognize which scene of the life of Christ I have before me, but I perceive instantly the sentiment which radiates from it and which is instinct in the composition in every line and color.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me." After a pause full of intense thought on my part, I asked: "But if one hasn't always emotion. What then?" "Do not paint," he quickly answered. "When I came in here to work this morning I had no emotion, so I took a horseback ride. When I returned I felt like painting, and had all the emotion I wanted.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Clara T. MacChesney (1912), in Matisse on Art (1995) edited by Jack D. Flam, p. 66
“I know that Seurat is completely the opposite of a romantic, which I am, but with a good portion of the scientific, of the rationalist, which creates the struggle from which I sometimes emerge the victor, but exhausted.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to Camoin, Autumn 1914; as quoted in Matisse on Art, Jack Flam, University of California Press 1995 p. 275, note 5
“Delacroix's composition is more entirely created, while that of Seurat employs matter organized scientifically, reproducing, presenting t our eyes objects constructed by scientific means rather than by signs, coming from our feeling. As result there is in his works a positivism, a slightly inert stability, coming from his composition, which is not the result of a creation of the mind, but of a juxtaposition of the objects. It is necessary to cross this barrier to re-feel light, colored and soft, and pure, the noblest pleasure”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Camoin, Autumn 1914; as quoted in Matisse on Art, Jack Flam, University of California Press 1995 p. 275, note 5
“A little while ago I took a nap under an olive tree, and the color harmonies I saw were so touching. It's like a paradise you have no right to analyze, but you are a painter, for God's sake! Nice is so beautiful! Alight so soft and tender, despite its brilliance.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to a friend, Nice 1918, as quoted in 'Matisse & Picasso', Paul Trachtman, Smithsonian Magazine, February 2003, p. 6
“Slowly I discovered the secret of my art. It consists of a meditation on nature, on the expression of a dream which is always inspired by reality. With more involvement and regularity, I learned to push each study in a certain direction. Little by little the notion that painting is a means of expression asserted itself, and that one can express the same thing in several ways. Exactitude is not truth, Delacroix liked to say.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Henri Matisse" by Jacques Guenne, L'Art Vivant (15 September 1925), translated by Jack Flam in Matisse on Art (1995)
“I will repeat what I once said to Guillaume Apollinaire: "For my part I have never avoided the influence of others. I would have considered it cowardice and a lack of sincerity toward myself.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Interview with Henri Matisse' by Jacques Guenne, in 'L'Art Vivant' (15 September 1925)
“At each stage I reach a balance, a conclusion. At the next sitting, if I find that there is a weakness in the whole, I make my way back into the picture by means of the weakness — I re-enter through the breach — and I reconceive the whole. Thus everything becomes fluid again.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement by Matisse to Tériade; as quoted by Tériade in 'Constance de Fauvisme', in 'Minotaure' (15 October 1936), translated by Jack Flam in Matisse on Art (1995)
“I don't paint things. I only paint the differences between things.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Henri Matisse: contre vents et marées : peinture et livres illustrés de 1939 à 1943
“Tomorrow, Sunday, at 4 o'clock, visit from Picasso. As I'm expecting to see him tomorrow, my mind is at work. I'm doing this propaganda show [at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, 1945] with him. I can imagine the room with my pictures on one side, and his on the other. It's as if I were going to cohabit with an epileptic.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Matisse in his notebook, c. April 1945; as cited in 'Matisse & Picasso', Paul Trachtman, Smithsonian Magazine, February 2003, p. 6
“An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythms, by effort that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to Mr. Clifford, February 14, 1948; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Ghiberti to Gainsborough, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson , London, 1963, p. 238
“The future painter must feel what is useful for his development – drawing or even sculpture everything that will let him become one with Nature, identify himself with her, by entering into the things – which is what I call Nature – that arouse his feelings. I believe study by means of drawing is most essential. If drawing is of the Spirit and color of the Senses, you must draw first, to cultivate the spirit and to be able to lead color into spiritual paths.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to Mr. Clifford, February 14, 1948; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Ghiberti to Gainsborough, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, pp. 238-239
“Drawing with scissors: To cut to the quick in color reminds me of the direct cutting of sculptors.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The vertical is in my spirit. It helps me to define precisely the direction of lines, and in quick sketches I never indicate a curve, that of a branch in landscape for example, without being aware of its relationship to the vertical. My curves are not mad.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A musician once said: In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows, and when there remains an energy that is all the stronger for being constrained, controlled and compressed. It is therefore necessary to present oneself with the greatest humility: white, pure and candid with a mind as if empty, in a spiritual state analogous to that of a communicant approaching the Lord's Table. Obviously it is necessary to have all of one's experience behind one, but to preserve the freshness of one's instincts.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do I believe in God? Yes, when I am working. When I am submissive and modest, I feel myself to be greatly helped by someone who causes me to do things that exceed my capabilities. However, I cannot acknowledge him because it is as if I were to find myself before a conjuror whose sleight of hand eludes me.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are flowers everywhere for those who want to see them”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You study, you learn, but you guard the original naiveté. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Time magazine (26 June 1950)
“There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in obituaries (5 November 1954)
“We are born with the sensibility of a period of civilization. We are not masters of our production; it is imposed upon us.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Abstract Painting, Michel Seuphor, Dell Publishing Co., 1964, p. 9
“A picture must possess a real power to generate light.. ..for a long time now I've been conscious of expressing myself through light or rather in light.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Matisse (1984) by Pierre Schneider
“Impressionism is the newspaper of the soul.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Matisse (1984) by Pierre Schneider
“[I wouldn't mind turning into] a vermilion goldfish.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At age 80, as quoted in Matisse (1984) by Pierre Schneider
“Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by in the review of 'The Drawings of Henri Matisse', exhibit at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art, by Theodore F Wolff in The Christian Science Monitor (25 March 1985)
“It is only after years of preparation that the young [artist] should touch color — not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Theodore F. Wolff in The Christian Science Monitor (25 March 1985)
“I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have the light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me..”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Theodore F. Wolff in The Christian Science Monitor (25 March 1985)
“I have been no more than a medium, as it were.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Smithsonian (November 1986)
“The artist begins with a vision — a creative operation requiring effort. Creativity takes courage.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Artist to Artist : Inspiration and Advice from Visual Artists Past & Present (1998), p. 62
“Expression for me does not reside in passions glowing in a human face or manifested by violent movement. The entire arrangement of my picture is expressive; the place occupied by my figures, the empty space around them, the proportions, everything has its share. Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter's command to express his feelings. In a picture every part will be visible and will play its appointed role, whether it be principal or secondary. Everything that is not useful in the picture is, it follows, harmful. A work of art must be harmonious in its entirety: any superfluous detail would replace some other essential detail in the mind of the spectator.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My choice of colors does not rest on any scientific theory; it is based on observation, on feeling, on the very nature of each experience. I.. ..merely try to find a color that will fit my sensation. There is an impelling proportion of tones that can induce me to change the shape of a figure or to transform my composition. Until I have achieved this proportion in all the parts of the composition I strive towards it and keep on working. Then a moment comes when every part has found its definite relationship, and from then on it would be impossible for me to add a stroke to my picture without having to paint it all over again.”
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source