Quote

What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.

Henri Matisse

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Henri Matisse
Age: 84 †
Born: 1869
Born: December 31
Died: 1954
Died: November 3
Artist
Designer
Drawer
Exlibrist
Graphic Artist
Painter
Printmaker
Sculptor
Le Cateau
Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse
Henri Emile Benoît Matisse
Henri Emile Benoit Matisse
Anri Matiss
Henri-Emile-Benoît Matisse
Henri-Emile-Benoit Matisse
H. Matisse
matisse h.
h. matisse
matisse henri
Henri-Matisse
Matisse
Mind
Physical
Soothing
Good
Subjects
Fatigue
Like
Balance
Relaxation
Influence
Serenity
Armchair
Rather
Depressing
Armchairs
Art
Provides
Troubling
Dream
Purity
Calming
Matter
Subject
Devoid

More quotes by Henri Matisse

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Arrival = Prison, and the artist must never be a prisoner.
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From the moment I held the box of colors in my hands, I knew this was my life. I threw myself into it like a beast that plunges towards the thing it loves.
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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.
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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.
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The artist begins with a vision - a creative operation requiring an effort.
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Truth and reality in art do not arise until you no longer understand what you are doing and are capable of but nevertheless sense a power that grows in proportion to your resistance.
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A young woman has young claws, well sharpened. If she has character, that is. And if she hasn't so much the worse for you.
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The artist has to look at life as he did when he was a child. If he loses that faculty, he cannot express himself in an original, that is, a personal way.
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What's so astonishing about not understanding? There are so many things in art, beginning with art itself, that one doesn't understand. A painter doesn't see everything that he has put in his painting.
Henri Matisse
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Color, even more than drawing, is a means of liberation.
Henri Matisse
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I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.
Henri Matisse
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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
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Would not it be best to leave room to mystery?
Henri Matisse
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I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm some sort of Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer.
Henri Matisse
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The arts have a development which comes not only from the individual but also from a whole acquired force, the civilization which precedes us. One cannot do just anything. A talented artist cannot do whatever he pleases. If he only used his gifts, he would not exist. We are not the masters of what we produce. It is imposed on us.
Henri Matisse
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I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me.
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The use of expressive colors is felt to be one of the basic elements of the modern mentality, an historical necessity, beyond choice.
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When I put a green, it is not grass. When I put a blue, it is not the sky.
Henri Matisse
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I am unable to distinguish between the feeling I have for life and my way of expressing it.
Henri Matisse
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The truly original artist invents his own signs.
Henri Matisse