Photography Quotes by Henri Matisse

The wall around the window does not create two worlds.

— Henri Matisse

Arrival = Prison, and the artist must never be a prisoner.

— Henri Matisse

To arrive is to be in prison.

— Henri Matisse

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

A painting in an interior spreads joy around it by the colors, which calm us.

— Henri Matisse

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

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

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

The chief function of color should be to serve expression as well as possible.

— Henri Matisse

One gets into a state of creativity by conscious work.

— Henri Matisse

My pictures are made up of four or five colors that collide with one another…

— Henri Matisse

What I dream of is an art of balance.

— Henri Matisse

...I am driven on by an idea that I really only grasp as it grows with the picture.

— Henri Matisse

I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.

— Henri Matisse

After a half-century of hard work and reflection the wall is still there.

— Henri Matisse