The artist begins with a vision - a creative operation requiring effort. Creativity takes courage. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
...I am driven on by an idea that I really only grasp as it grows with the picture. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Art should be something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Creation is the artist's true function; where there is no creation there is no art. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
An artist is an explorer. He has to begin by self-discovery and by observation of his own procedure. After that he must… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
I have to create an object which resembles the tree. The sign for a tree, and not the sign that other artists… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
The portrait is one of the most curious art forms. It demands special qualities in the artist, and an almost total kinship… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
All that is not useful in a picture is detrimental. A work of art must be harmonious in its entirety; for superfluous… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
The effort to see things without distortion takes something like courage and this courage is essential to the artist, who has to… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Hatred, rancor, and the spirit of vengeance are useless baggage to the artist. His road is difficult enough for him to cleanse… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Truth and reality in art begin at the point where the artist ceases to understand what he is doing and capable of… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
If it is practiced by a man of taste, the photograph will have the appearance of art (but) the photographer must...intervene as… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
The arts have a development which comes not only from the individual but also from a whole acquired force, the civilization which… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Photographs will always be impressive because they show us nature, and all artists will find in them a world of sensations. The… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Those who work in a preconceived style, deliberately turning their backs on nature, miss the truth. An artist must recognize, when he… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
An artist who wants to transpose a composition onto a larger canvas must conceive it over again in order to preserve its… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
It is my dream to create an art which is filled with balance, purity and calmness, freed from a subject matter that… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Everything that we see in our daily lives is more or less distorted by acquired habits and this is perhaps more evident… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Slowly I discovered the secret of my art. It consists of a meditation on nature, on the expression of a dream which… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
I have always sought to be understood and, while I was taken to task by critics or colleagues, I thought they were… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
A painting in an interior spreads joy around it by the colors, which calm us. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
All my efforts go into creating an art that can be understood by everyone. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
When I saw what a mess everything was in I asked for my money back on the ticket. I would have felt I was… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
A painting in an interior spreads joy around it by the colors, which calm us. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Color was not given to us in order that we should imitate Nature. It was given to us so that we can express our… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
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… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
The chief function of color should be to serve expression as well as possible. — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
My pictures are made up of four or five colors that collide with one another… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
