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Ever since there have been men, man has given himself over to too little joy. That alone, my brothers, is our original sin. I should believe only in a God who understood how to dance.

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
Little
Since
Originals
Believe
Alone
Original
Men
Religion
God
Faith
Dance
Hope
Sin
Given
Understood
Littles
Brother
Ever
Joy
Brothers

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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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Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.
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Did not the artists of the great age of Japanese art change names many times during their careers? I like that they wanted to safeguard their freedom.
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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.
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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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Seek the strongest color effect possible... the content is of no importance.
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I am unable to distinguish between the feeling I have for life and my way of expressing it.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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If it is practiced by a man of taste, the photograph will have the appearance of art (but) the photographer must...intervene as little as possible, so as not to lose the objective charm which it naturally possesses.
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When an artist or student draws a nude figure with painstaking care, the result is drawing, and not emotion.
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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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The Barnes Foundation is the only sane place to see art in America.
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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.
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The wall around the window does not create two worlds.
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Another word for creativity is courage.
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Arrival = Prison, and the artist must never be a prisoner.
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Starting to paint, I felt gloriously free, quiet, and alone.
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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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