Henri Matisse Quotes - Page 8

Quotes about:

• The model for me is a touchstone, it is a door which I must break open in order to reach the garden in which I am alone and feel good, even the model exists only for what use I can make of it.

  Henri Matisse

  Garden, Doors, Order

  7 Copy quote

• The living model, the naked body of a woman, is the privileged seat of feeling, but also of questioning... The model must mark you, awaken in you an emotion which you seek in turn to express.

  Henri Matisse

  Beauty, Feelings, Naked

  4 Copy quote

• What matters most to me? To work with my model until I have it enough in me to be able to improvise, to let my hand run free.

  Henri Matisse

  Running, What Matters, Hands

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• If my story were ever to be written truthfully from start to finish, it would amaze everyone.

  Henri Matisse

  Stories, Written, Ifs

  4 Copy quote

• Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.

  Henri Matisse

  Tree, Intuition, Natural Instinct

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• I dream of an art of balance, of quietness, something analogous to a good armchair.

  Henri Matisse

  Dream, Art, Balance

  6 Copy quote

• The sign for which I forge an image has no value if it doesn't harmonize with other signs, which I must determine in the course of my invention and which are completely peculiar to it.

  Henri Matisse

  Peculiar, Harmony, Invention

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

  7 Copy quote

• The artist begins with a vision - a creative operation requiring an effort.

  Henri Matisse

  Artist, Effort, Creative

  7 Copy quote

• The sign is determined at the moment I use it and for the object of which it must form a part. For this reason I cannot determine in advance signs which never change, and which would be like writing: that would paralyze the freedom of my invention.

  Henri Matisse

  Writing, Use, Would Be

  7 Copy quote

• Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Giving, Aristocracy

  8 Copy quote

• Hatred, rancor, and the spirit of vengeance are useless baggage to the artist. His road is difficult enough for him to cleanse his soul of everything which could make it more so.

  Henri Matisse

  Artist, Hatred, Soul

  56 Copy quote

• 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”

  7 Copy quote

• Truly, I'm not joking when I thank my lucky stars for the awful operation I had, since it has made me young again and philosophical which means that I don't want to fritter away the new lease on life I've been given.

  Henri Matisse

  Stars, Philosophical, Mean

  4 Copy quote

• A work should contain its total meaning within itself and should impress it on the spectator before he even knows the subject.

  Henri Matisse

  Artistic, Should, Impress

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henri Matisse

  Passion, Glowing, Expression

  "Notes d'un Peintre". "La Grande Revue", as translated by Jack Flam in "Matisse on Art" (1995), December 25, 1908.

  6 Copy quote

• I have been no more than a medium, as it were.

  Henri Matisse

  Mediums, Has Beens

  "Smithsonian" Magazine, November 1986.

  8 Copy quote

• I shan't get free of my emotion by copying the tree faithfully, or by drawing its leaves one by one in the common language, but only after identifying myself with it.

  Henri Matisse

  Drawing, Tree, Copying

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.149, Univ of California Press

  7 Copy quote

• A certain color tones you up. It's the concentration of timbres.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Tone, Timbre

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

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• Expression is not a matter of passion mirrored on the human face or revealed by a violent gesture. When I paint a picture, its every detail is expressive.

  Henri Matisse

  Passion, Expression, Faces

  7 Copy quote

• Arrival = Prison, and the artist must never be a prisoner.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Prison, Arrivals

  6 Copy quote

• The use of expressive colors is felt to be one of the basic elements of the modern mentality, an historical necessity, beyond choice.

  Henri Matisse

  Color, Rainbow, Choices

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.177, Univ of California Press

  7 Copy quote

• There are wonderful things in Jazz, the improvisation, the liveliness, the being at one with the audience.

  Henri Matisse

  Music, Jazz, Wonderful

  7 Copy quote

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