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For my part I have never avoided the influence of others. I would have considered it cowardice and a lack of sincerity toward myself.

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
Part
Avoided
Never
Cowardice
Would
Sincerity
Considered
Lack
Toward
Influence
Others

More quotes by Henri Matisse

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Fit the parts together, one into the other, and build your figure like a carpenter builds a house. Everything must be constructed, composed of parts that make a whole.
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It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.
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Art is an escape from reality.
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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.
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When a painting is finished, it's like a new born child, and the artist himself must have time for understanding. How then do you expect an amateur to understand that which the artist dos not yet comprehend.
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When I put a green, it is not grass. When I put a blue, it is not the sky.
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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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There are wonderful things in Jazz, the improvisation, the liveliness, the being at one with the audience.
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...The more a picture has to give, the greater it is.
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My models, my human figures, are never like extras in an interior. They are the main theme of my work. I depend absolutely on my model.
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I dream of an art of balance, of quietness, something analogous to a good armchair.
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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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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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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.
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After a half-century of hard work and reflection the wall is still there.
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All my efforts go into creating an art that can be understood by everyone.
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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.
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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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Photographs will always be impressive because they show us nature, and all artists will find in them a world of sensations. The photographer must therefore intervene as little as possible, so as not to cause photography to lose the objective charm which it naturally possesses, notwithstanding its defects.
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What interests me most is neither still life nor landscape, but the human figure.
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