Quote

All that is not useful in a picture is detrimental. A work of art must be harmonious in its entirety for superfluous details would, in the mind of the beholder, encroach upon the essential elements.

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
Picture
Beholder
Elements
Superfluous
Upon
Harmonious
Art
Useful
Must
Details
Work
Essential
Encroach
Mind
Essentials
Detrimental
Would
Harmony
Entirety

More quotes by Henri Matisse

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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.
Henri Matisse
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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
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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.
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Truth and reality in art begin at the point where the artist ceases to understand what he is doing and capable of doing - yet feels in himself a force that becomes steadily stronger... and more concentrated.
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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.
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I have been no more than a medium, as it were.
Henri Matisse
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I have to create an object which resembles the tree. The sign for a tree, and not the sign that other artists may have found for the tree.
Henri Matisse
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Love wants to rise, not to be held down by anything base... He who loves flies, runs, and rejoices he is free and nothing holds him back. Derive happiness from yourself, from a good day's work, from the clearing that it makes in the fog that surrounds us.
Henri Matisse
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An artist is an explorer. He has to begin by self-discovery and by observation of his own procedure. After that he must not feel under any constraint.
Henri Matisse
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Another word for creativity is courage.
Henri Matisse
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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.
Henri Matisse
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The artists must see all things as if he were seeing them for the first time. All his life he must see as he did when he was a child.
Henri Matisse
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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
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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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Color exists in itself, possessing its own beauty.
Henri Matisse
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It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression.
Henri Matisse
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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.
Henri Matisse
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Arrival = Prison, and the artist must never be a prisoner.
Henri Matisse
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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.
Henri Matisse
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To draw is to make an idea precise. Drawing is the precision of thought.
Henri Matisse