Henri Matisse Quotes - Page 4

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• The effort to see things without distortion takes something like courage and this courage is essential to the artist, who has to look at everything as though he saw it for the first time.

  Henri Matisse

  Courage, Artist, Effort

  30 Copy quote

• Purer colors... have in themselves, independently of the objects they serve to express, a significant action on the feelings of those who look at them.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Feelings, Looks

  25 Copy quote

• If people knew what Matisse, supposedly the painter of happiness, had gone through, the anguish and tragedy he had to overcome to manage to capture that light which has never left him, if people knew all that, they would also realize that this happiness, this light, this dispassionate wisdom which seems to be mine, are sometimes well-deserved, given the severity of my trials.

  Henri Matisse

  Happiness, Light, People

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.11, Univ of California Press

  31 Copy quote

• When I started to paint I felt transported into a kind of paradise... In everyday life I was usually bored and vexed... Starting to paint I felt gloriously free.

  Henri Matisse

  Freedom, Bored, Everyday

  18 Copy quote

• You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Love Is, Alaska

  "Time" magazine, June 26, 1950.

  25 Copy quote

• Hatred is a parasite that devours all. One doesn't build upon hatred, but upon love.

  Henri Matisse

  Hatred, Parasites

  Henri Matisse (1977). “Henri Matisse Paper Cut-outs: National Gallery of Art Color Slide Program”

  13 Copy quote

• If drawing belongs to the world of spirit and color to that of the senses, you must draw first to cultivate the spirit.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Drawing, World

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  69 Copy quote

• An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.

  Henri Matisse

  Artist, Effort, Mastery

  21 Copy quote

• I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Emotional, Feelings

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.66, Univ of California Press

  18 Copy quote

• ...for whether we want to or not, we belong to our time and we share in its opinions, its feelings, even its delusions.

  Henri Matisse

  Feelings, Want, Opinion

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.43, Univ of California Press

  13 Copy quote

• 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”

  12 Copy quote

• You want to paint? First of all you must cut off your tongue because your decision takes away from you the right to express yourself with anything but your brush.

  Henri Matisse

  Cutting, Decision, Want

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

  10 Copy quote

• A painting in an interior spreads joy around it by the colors, which calm us.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Color, Joy

  "Matisse on Art".

  5 Copy quote

• I simply try to put down colors which render my sensation

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Trying, Complementary Colors

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.41, Univ of California Press

  7 Copy quote

• It would be a mistake to ascribe this creative power to an inborn talent. In art, the genius creator is not just a gifted being, but a person who has succeeded in arranging for their appointed end, a complex of activities, of which the work is the outcome. The artist begins with a vision — a creative operation requiring an effort. Creativity takes courage.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Mistake, Creativity

  34 Copy quote

• When I eat a tomato I look at it the way anyone else would. But when I paint a tomato, then I see it differently.

  Henri Matisse

  Creative, Looks, Tomatoes

  17 Copy quote

• Drawing is . . . not an exercise of particular dexterity, but above all a means of expressing intimate feelings and moods.

  Henri Matisse

  Mean, Exercise, Drawing

  8 Copy quote

• An artist must never be a prisoner. Prisoner? An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success, etc.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Style, Etc

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

  10 Copy quote

• Drawing is of the Spirit and color of the Senses.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Drawing, Spirit

  "Minnesota celebrates Matisse".

  5 Copy quote

• All art worthy of the name is religious.

  Henri Matisse

  Religious, Art, Names

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

  6 Copy quote

• The whole arrangement of my picture is expressive. The place occupied by the figures or objects, the empty spaces around them, the proportions, everything plays a part.

  Henri Matisse

  Play, Space, Empty

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

  17 Copy quote

• Seek the strongest color effect possible... the content is of no importance.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Color, Importance

  15 Copy quote

• All my efforts go into creating an art that can be understood by everyone.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Creating, Effort

  13 Copy quote

• A distinction is made between artists who work directly from nature and those who work purely from imagination. Neither if these methods should be preferred to the exclusion of the other. Often both are used in turn by the same man.

  Henri Matisse

  Artist, Men, Imagination

  12 Copy quote

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