Henri Matisse Quotes About Composition

Quotes about: Composition

• I never retouch a sketch: I take a canvas the same size, as I may change the composition somewhat. But I always strive to give the same feeling, while carrying it on further.

  Henri Matisse

  Giving, Feelings, May

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.67, Univ of California Press

• An artist who wants to transpose a composition onto a larger canvas must conceive it over again in order to preserve its expression; he must alter its character and not just fill in the squares into which he has divided his canvas.

  Henri Matisse

  Character, Artist, Squares

  Henri Matisse, Susan Lambert, Victoria and Albert Museum (1981). “Matisse lithographs”

• Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the various elements which the painter uses to express his sentiments. In a picture every separate part will be visible and... everything which has no utility in the picture is for that reason harmful.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Use, Elements

• 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.

  Henri Matisse

  Drawing, Expression, Dimensions

  "Artists on Art - from the 14th - 20th centuries". Book edited by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, London, p. 410, 'Notes d'un Peintre' (Notes of a Painter), 1972.

• Each work of art is a collection of signs invented during the picture's execution to suit the needs of their position. Taken out of the composition for which they were created, these signs have no further use.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Taken, Suits

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

• I cannot copy nature in a servile way; I am forced to interpret nature and submit it to the spirit of the picture. From the relationship I have found in all the tones there must result a living harmony of colors, a harmony analogous to that of a musical composition.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Musical, Way

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

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