The artist begins with a vision - a creative operation requiring an effort. — 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
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
The artist has to look at life as he did when he was a child. If he loses that faculty, he cannot… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
A distinction is made between artists who work directly from nature and those who work purely from imagination. Neither if these methods… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
Color helps to express light, not the physical phenomenon, but the only light that really exists, that in the artist's brain. — 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
An artist must never be a prisoner. Prisoner? An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of… — 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
An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
My choice of colors does not rest on any scientific theory; it is based on observation, on feeling, on the experience of… — 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
It would be a mistake to ascribe this creative power to an inborn talent. In art, the genius creator is not just… — 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
Much of the beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium. — 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
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
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
The essential thing is to spring forth, to express the bolt of lightning one senses upon contact with a thing. The function… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
When a painting is finished, it's like a new born child, and the artist himself must have time for understanding. How then… — Henri Matisse Copy Share Image
The importance of an artist is to be measured by the quantity of new signs which he has introduced to the language… — 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
The artists must see all things as if he were seeing them for the first time. All his life he must see… — 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
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
