Henri Matisse Quotes

Quotes about:

• Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Inspiration, Waiting

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1973). “Matisse on art”

  132 Copy quote

• Color was not given to us in order that we should imitate Nature. It was given to us so that we can express our emotions.

  Henri Matisse

  Order, Color, Emotion

  105 Copy quote

• There are always flowers for those who want to see them.

  Henri Matisse

  Positive, Beautiful, Art

  Henri Matisse (1992). “Jazz”, George Braziller

  162 Copy quote

• Another word for creativity is courage.

  Henri Matisse

  Courage, Creativity, Design

  30 Copy quote

• Don't try to be original. Be simple. Be good technically, and if there is something in you, it will come out.

  Henri Matisse

  Simple, Trying, Be Good

  98 Copy quote

• Creative people are curious, flexible, and independent with a tremendous spirit and a love of play.

  Henri Matisse

  Independent, Creativity, Play

  140 Copy quote

• Nothing can be accomplished without love.

  Henri Matisse

  Accomplished, Without Love

  98 Copy quote

• The artists must see all things as if he were seeing them for the first time. All his life he must see as he did when he was a child.

  Henri Matisse

  Children, Artist, Firsts

  84 Copy quote

• Art is an escape from reality.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Reality, Art Is

  39 Copy quote

• Love wants to rise, not to be held down by anything base... He who loves flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free and nothing holds him back. Derive happiness from yourself, from a good day's work, from the clearing that it makes in the fog that surrounds us.

  Henri Matisse

  Running, Good Day, Fog

  5 Copy quote

• The essential thing is to work in a state of mind that approaches prayer.

  Henri Matisse

  Prayer, Mind, Essentials

  111 Copy quote

• Drawing is putting a line around an idea.

  Henri Matisse

  Ideas, Drawing, Sketching

  91 Copy quote

• Seeing is in itself a creative act which requires effort.

  Henri Matisse

  Effort, Creative, Seeing

  19 Copy quote

• Everything that we see in our daily lives is more or less distorted by acquired habits and this is perhaps more evident in an age like ours when cinema posters and magazines present us every day with a flood of ready-made images which are to the eye what prejudices are to the mind. The effort to see things without distortion demands a kind of courage; and this courage is essential to the artist, who has to look at everything as though he were seeing it for the first time.

  Henri Matisse

  Eye, Artist, Effort

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.218, Univ of California Press

  10 Copy quote

• Creation begins with vision.

  Henri Matisse

  Vision, Creation

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.217, Univ of California Press

  36 Copy quote

• I've been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors is black.

  Henri Matisse

  Queens, Black And White, Color

  43 Copy quote

• A certain blue enters your soul

  Henri Matisse

  Blue, Soul, Certain

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.211, Univ of California Press

  70 Copy quote

• If I close my eyes, I see things better than with my eyes open.

  Henri Matisse

  Eye, Ifs

  16 Copy quote

• You must forget all your theories, all your ideas before the subject. What part of these is really your own will be expressed in your expression of the emotion awakened in you by the subject.

  Henri Matisse

  Expression, Ideas, Emotion

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.49, Univ of California Press

  9 Copy quote

• Starting to paint, I felt gloriously free, quiet, and alone.

  Henri Matisse

  Quiet, Paint, Starting

  5 Copy quote

• I wouldn't mind turning into a vermilion goldfish.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Mind, Goldfish

  "Matisse". Book by Pierre Schneider, 1984.

  96 Copy quote

• With greater completeness and abstraction, I have attained a form filtered to its essentials.

  Henri Matisse

  Simplicity, Essentials, Form

  Henri Matisse (2011). “Matisse: Drawing Life”, Queensland Art Gallery

  10 Copy quote

• When I paint green, it doesn't mean grass; when I paint blue, it doesn't mean sky.

  Henri Matisse

  Mean, Blue, Color

  80 Copy quote

• Seek for the boldest color possible, content is irrelevant.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Irrelevant

  15 Copy quote

• He who loves, flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free and nothing holds him back.

  Henri Matisse

  Love, Running, Freedom

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.174, Univ of California Press

  40 Copy quote

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