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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.

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
Takes
Decision
Away
Brush
Anything
Brushes
Firsts
Tongue
First
Express
Right
Paint
Must
Cutting

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Would not it be best to leave room to mystery?
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Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.
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Arrival = Prison, and the artist must never be a prisoner.
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It has always bothered me that I don't paint like everyone else
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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.
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...The more a picture has to give, the greater it is.
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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.
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From the first shock of the contemplation of a face depends the principal sensation which guides me throughout the entire execution of a portrait.
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A rapid rendering of a landscape represents only one moment of its existence. I prefer, by insisting upon its essential character, to risk losing charm in order to gain greater stability.
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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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Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.
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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 chief function of color should be to serve expression as well as possible.
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The effort to see things without distortion takes something like courage and this courage is essential to the artist, who has to look at everything as though he saw it for the first time.
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Starting to paint, I felt gloriously free, quiet, and alone.
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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 energy within you is stronger than ever for being held back, compressed, and said No to.
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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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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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