Matisse: From Color to Architecture

Book Description

Few artists have explored genres and techniques with such curiosity and pleasure as Henri Matisse, whose fascination with the relationship between interior and exterior forms occupied him throughout his career. In the early 1950s, he chose to dedicate his last years to the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence and the nursery school in his hometown of Le Cateau-Cambrésis, both in the South of France. These sites represent a culmination of all Matisse's earlier visual and spatial explorations.

This book sheds new light on the development of Matisse's oeuvre, which spans some 60 years. Lavishly illustrated with almost 400 images, this deluxe volume includes beautiful reproductions of the artist's most famous paintings paired with lesser-known documents and photographs culled from the archives of his estate. The authors also gathered first-hand accounts related by numerous participants in the Vence and Le Cateau projects. The result is a fascinating, almost day-to-day look at Matisse's process as he created these works, and an intimate portrait of both the artist and the man. AUTHOR BIO: The late René Percheron was head of the museum of national antique art in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, and a lecturer on the history of art and photography. Christian Brouder is a researcher at CNRS, the national organization for scientific research in Paris.

Customer Reviews:

Offering an intimate portrait of the artist in work and life.......2005-01-04

Primarily known for his luminous color paintings, the French artist Henri Matisse was also involved in designing stunningly beautiful stained glass windows and even ventured into the realm of architecture as well. Matisse: From Color To Architecture is a seminal work by Rene Percheron and Christian Brouder and the first to focus on these lesser known endeavors by one of France's most renowned painters. Offering an intimate portrait of the artist in work and life with a focus upon Matisse's work in his final years on the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence and the nursery school in his hometown of Le Cateayu-Cambresis (both of these buildings are located in the south of France), this 384 page compendium is enhanced with 396 illustrations (247 of which are in full color) and includes beautiful reproductions of Matisse's most famous paintings drawn from the collections of Centre Georges Pompidou, the Hermitage Museum, the Barnes Foundation, and the National Gallery of Art. These works are paired with documents and photographs culled from the archives of the Matisse estate. Included are first-hand accounts from the participants in the Vence and Le Cateau projects. Matisse: From Color To Architecture is an original and recommended contribution to personal, professional, academic, and community library Art History and Architectural Studies collections.

Average customer rating:

Great Book

Matisse: Painter as Sculptor
Dorothy Kosinski , Ann Boulton , Steve Nash , and Oliver Shell
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300115415

Book Description

Widely known for his vibrant and innovative modernist paintings and works on paper, Henri Matisse (1869–1954) also produced a large number of sculptures that were equally groundbreaking. This original and lavishly illustrated book examines more than forty of Matisse’s sculptures and joins them with his paintings, drawings, prints, and collages to investigate the relationship between his two-dimensional and three-dimensional work.
Essays present an overview of Matisse’s creative invention in sculpture and address his sculptural process from beginning to end. The volume presents the results of exciting new technical studies on Matisse’s working and casting methods. A selection of works on paper, paintings, and photographs unveils the evolution of his sculptural ideas––highlighting the importance of drawings to his process––and explores the fascinating issue of why he often painted images of his sculptures into many of his major works. Archival and installation photographs reveal how Matisse originally intended his works to be viewed.
Matisse: Painter as Sculptor also examines the artist's work in the context of late-19th- and early-20th-century sculpture. Works by Constantin Brancusi, Paul Cézanne, Alberto Giacometti, Jacques Lipschitz, and Auguste Rodin address important questions of influence, affinity, and the meaning of modernism in Matisse's sculpture.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book.......2007-10-03

A no nonsense book on the great sculpture of Matisse.
Lots of images, good printing and photography. Highly
recommended for professionals and the general art loving
public alike.

Average customer rating:

Great Intro to ART
A work of art that's fun to read
Fun book
this book inspired my 2 year old to paint
Great story of friendship, art, and puns, too!

When Pigasso Met Mootisse
Nina Laden
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0811811212

Book Description

When Pigasso met Mootisse, what begins as a neighborly overture escalates into a mess. Before you can say paint-by-numbers, the two artists become fierce rivals, calling each other names and ultimately building a fence between them. But when the two painters paint opposite sides of the fence that divides them, they unknowingly create a modern art masterpiece, and learn it is their friendship that is the true work of art.
Nina Laden's wacky illustrations complement this funny story that non only introduces children to two of the world's most extraordinary modern artists, but teaches a very important lesson&dash;how to creatively resolve a conflictâin a most unusual way.

Customer Reviews:

Great Intro to ART.......2007-09-28

What a fantastic book to introduce some masters to your child. Wonderful, bright pictures and an adorable story!

A work of art that's fun to read.......2007-08-13

Such a humorous and educational way to learn about the two masters of 20th century modernism. My son has this book and I've given it to other kids and everyone loves it, and they amazingly retain and remember the facts about the real artists as well. Excellent way to expose your child to the arts in a way that's fun and memorable.

Fun book.......2007-01-05

Whether your kid knows who Picasso is or not, this is a fun play on Famous Artists and their feuding ways. My Kindergartener loves this book.

this book inspired my 2 year old to paint.......2006-12-13

This book is my daughter's favorite. We have read it every day for the past 9 or so months and she has most of the punch lines memorized, (e.g., "mootisse was not like the other bulls" "it was a modern art mess" "the silence was broken" "i'm tired of this crowded cow town"). After reading it the first time, she said she wanted to draw with paint. And she did. Now we do watercolors all the time and she knows that Picasso and Matisse were great artists. This book provided a fun and funny way for her to learn about two art masters and their styles while also teaching a lesson about conflict resolution.

We have taken this book on flights across the country and overseas. The illustrations and the story engage my daughter to no end. The description of this book is for 4-8 year olds but unlike Roberto: The Insect Architect by Nina Laden (also a funny, well-illustrated book), I find Pigasso/Mootisse to be appropriate for a younger {pre}reader as well. I'm back to buy more copies as gifts for all the kids that I know.

Great story of friendship, art, and puns, too!.......2005-12-30

This terrific book recounts the rivalry and eventual friendship of Picasso and Matisse, er, ah, excuse me...I meant, Pigasso and Mootisse. The protagonists in this story live across the street from each other and first hurl insults like,"You paint like a wild beast", (that's called "fauvism" for all you art lovers or snobs out there!) while Mootisse retorts, "You are pig-headed". Throughout, the paint and puns fly.
Beautiful visuals and a great afterward that tell the "real" story of Picasso and Matisse complete this utterly charming book. A good intro to art world for the little ones, as well as a lesson on the power of friendship and tolerance.

Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Conquest of Colour: 1909-1954

Average customer rating:

More than history of art
Art is the Air That I Breathe
Matisse - He Shocked the World Yet He Pleases The Eye of the Individual!
See New Dimensions of Matisse's Work
Inspirational

Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Conquest of Colour: 1909-1954
Hilary Spurling
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0679434291
Release Date: 2005-09-06

Book Description

“If my story were ever to be written down truthfully from start to finish, it would amaze everyone,” wrote Henri Matisse. It is hard to believe today that Matisse, whose exhibitions draw huge crowds worldwide, was once almost universally reviled and ridiculed. His response was neither to protest nor to retreat; he simply pushed on from one innovation to the next, and left the world to draw its own conclusions. Unfortunately, these were generally false and often damaging. Throughout his life and afterward people fantasized about his models and circulated baseless fabrications about his private life.

Fifty years after his death, Matisse the Master (the second half of the biography that began with the acclaimed The Unknown Matisse) shows us the painter as he saw himself. With unprecedented and unrestricted access to his voluminous family correspondence, and other new material in private archives, Hilary Spurling documents a lifetime of desperation and self-doubt exacerbated by Matisse’s attempts to counteract the violence and disruption of the twentieth century in paintings that now seem effortlessly serene, radiant, and stable.
Here for the first time is the truth about Matisse’s models, especially two Russians: his pupil Olga Meerson and the extraordinary Lydia Delectorskaya, who became his studio manager, secretary, and companion in the last two decades of his life.
But every woman who played an important part in Matisse’s life was remarkable in her own right, not least his beloved daughter Marguerite, whose honesty and courage surmounted all ordeals, including interrogation and torture by the Gestapo in the Second World War.

If you have ever wondered how anyone with such a tame public image as Matisse could have painted such rich, powerful, mysteriously moving pictures, let alone produced the radical cut-paper and stained-glass inventions of his last years, here is the answer. They were made by the real Matisse, whose true story has been written down at last from start to finish by his first biographer, Hilary Spurling.

Customer Reviews:

More than history of art.......2007-01-19

Superb! Not only one of the best biographies I've read, it get's into the mind of the artist. This is not an easy thing to do. I read it as I would a novel, it was very hard to put down.

Art is the Air That I Breathe.......2006-11-21

"Artists are like plants whose growth in the thickets of the jungle depends on the air they breathe, and the mud or stones among which they grow by chance and without choice." Matisse's words coupled with his life as proof of what van Gogh said about the love of art making one lose real love make the reader feel the pain, the joy and the rich colours of his life all that much more. He made us understand.

Hilary Spurling's masterpiece (savoured by me for endless months, days and hours) has been an extraordinary experience I never wanted to end - both volumes. And now her biography is all locked in my mind - hopefully, to be recalled again and again in painting after painting and life experience after love experience - thanks to all the years of her hard work and research.

I am now filled with the colours of the Master - just as he'd installed 'The Tree of Life' in "a change of key that brought an extraordinary clarity, serenity and stillness to the music of the chapel." If the student of art, the student of life might only read pp. 455-456, he/she would be amazed at one whose talents were mocked ("any child could paint better than Matisse." ... "...his inventions seemed not simply monstrous but blasphemous as well.") and would ache to have had the chance to be a simple fly on the wall in those last years of his life when the many energies swirled about his taxi beds and many wond'rous studios ever-changing, metamorphosing, revealing and displaying, nurturing, teaching... revolutionary!

Let us not forgot his bedrocks - the women who made all his successes possible are miraculous and astonishing... Lydia, Matisse's remarkable genius manager (we should all be so lucky to know such a dynamo); Amelie, his extraordinary wife and her 'nine lives'; of course, Marguerite, his daughter, whose amazing vitality and strength of character resounds on almost every page of his life story; she was one (by her great courage) who humbled him more than anyone else could; and the countless models and interns...

As a side note... I remember in January 2006 when Hilary Spurling "scooped one of Britain's most prestigious literary awards," Whitbread Book of the Year prize, just as the big scandal exploded about Oprah's book club "author" protégé/scam artist James Frey was exposed. I thought to myself, "There is still a god!" What kind of mindless person would turn to Oprah for advice on what to read in the first place?! What does she know about literature?

I am humbled at Hilary Spurling's great accomplishment and would love to meet her one day so I could sing her the song I wrote about Matisse and the story of his blue butterfly. [...]

"The blue of that butterfly and Cezanne
made you more of a spiritual man."

Matisse - He Shocked the World Yet He Pleases The Eye of the Individual!.......2006-06-08

Such a wonderful book to read! After seeing his works of art at the museums in New York (MET - MOMA); in Maryland (BMA); and in California (San Francisco), it is a joy to the human spirit to read this biography. This book offers the reader all the underlying events contributing to each of his major works of art. It allows us to better appreciate his extreme and intense efforts to create; it allows us to recognize his unquestionable courage to be himself while many of the art world turned away from him; and one will learn of his life long love of the natural world (birds and plants) and his view of the importance of the spirit of man. Further, this book allows the reader to see his social frustration; one can learn of his powerful drive (so red hot) to create, and one will see in words how he commanded everyone around him to assist him in his zeal to achieve his personal best in art. As the book denotes towards the end even Picasso, the great competitor, stated in a discussion of one of Matisse's later works (the Chapel in Nice): 'Only Matisse could do this!' Read to learn, read to know, and read to be more deeply passionate in love with Matisse as I am!

See New Dimensions of Matisse's Work.......2005-12-27

Those of us who live today are spoiled in one sense that we don't realize: We can see Matisse's work on display and appreciate its evolution. That wasn't possible until just the last few decades. Until then, many of his most powerful works were locked up in the Soviet system and not on display or were in the hands of reclusive collectors.

That's an important point to remember when you wonder why Picasso has gotten so much more attention than Matisse, you could always see Picasso's work and Picasso courted attention.

Matisse, by comparison, found that it took all of his energies just to create art. There was very little time left over for his family and the rest of the world. He also wasn't inclined to seek out those who could explain and defend his work. As a result, he was widely misunderstood and underappreciated during his lifetime. This book corrects many of those problems.

Of particularly interest is the finding that although Matisse spent his life painting voluptuous nudes, he didn't indulge in having sexual relations with his models. Rather he used the sexual tension the models created in him to help inspire a better work. The models did become, ultimately, the undoing of his marriage . . . but not for the reasons you expect.

As fascinating as he is as an artist, he even more interesting as a creative person and head of a family. Matisse saw his family's role as being there to serve art. Although in a crisis, he would show up to encourage and aid family members and friends . . . usually he was off painting or sculpting by himself in sunnier climes. The rest of the time, they were doing administrative tasks, critiquing the works, staying out of his way and helping him enjoy a tranquil existence.

Anyone who wants a deeper appreciation of Matisse's work will learn from this volume. Although the book would have been better with more color plates, the pages are generously illustrated with black and white reproductions to give you a sense of his focus and development.

For artists, the book's many insights into the pros and cons of relationships with collectors and dealers will make the volume a "must have" item.

I didn't know the background of many of his best works, such as Jazz. It was a pleasure to better understand why he did them.

In particular, you will come away with a new appreciation for Matisse's use of color to capture emotion. Think of The Red Studio and the Conversation.

I seldom savor biographies as much as I did this one. I plan to go back now and read the first volume in the series, The Unknown Matisse.

Ms. Spurling's extensive use of Matisse's letters (and especially reproducing the funny little cartoons he liked to put in them) made the book a special joy.

Nice work, Ms. Spurling!

Inspirational.......2005-12-11

Being a artist sometimes one needs to see new the world around them. The pressures of family life and the ability to do what you do sometimes empties the soul. What I find the most interesting is the perspective given to the self appraisal and the internal struggle Matisse went through in his personal and business dealing. Anyone interested in the business aspect of the art world from the artist perspective will find this book helpful in both personal and professional dealings.

Dance Me to the End of Love (Art & Poetry)

Average customer rating:

Dance Me to the End of Love
Great song, lame irrelevant Matisse
Way to go again Leonard
Unique and highly recommended title
The best birthday present ever!

Dance Me to the End of Love (Art & Poetry)
Leonard Cohen
Manufacturer: Welcome Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1932183930
Release Date: 2006-08-15

Amazon.com

The Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen, known primarily for his mournful tunes of love misplaced, has produced a surprising message of hopeful passion in this playful picture book for grownups in love. The 21 Matisse illustrations sprawl luxuriously across the pages. Art, poetry, and the suggestion of erotic delights... what more can a lover ask?

Book Description

10 years ago, Welcome Books published the star of its Art & Poetry Series, Dance Me to the End of Love, a deliriously romantic song by Leonard Cohen that was brilliantly visualized through the sensual paintings of Henri Matisse. Now for its 10-year anniversary, Welcome is thrilled to present the entirely re-imagined and redesigned Dance Me to the End of Love. With the art of Matisse and the words of Cohen still at the heart of the book, the new look and feel of this Art & Poetry book is overwhelmingly beautiful.
Cohen's song is a lyrical tribute to the miracle of love, the grace it bestows on us and its healing, restorative power. Originally recorded on his Various Positions album, and featured in Cohen's anthology, Stranger Music, this poetic song is gloriously married to the art works by Henri Matisse, perhaps the greatest artist of the twentieth century. "I had this dance within me for a long time," Matisse once said in describing one of his murals. Dance Me to the End of Love is the perfect book for art lovers, song lovers, and all other lovers as well.

Customer Reviews:

Dance Me to the End of Love.......2007-09-01

It's hard to believe Matisse did not collaborate on this book. The perfect symbiosis of the poetry and illustrations truly dance you through to the end. I bought this book as a gift. I'm keeping it.

Great song, lame irrelevant Matisse.......2007-05-12

Dance Me to the End of Love is a supremely great song, but the sketchy Matisse paintings that promiscuously drape this book do nothing to enhance it.

Way to go again Leonard.......2007-04-17

Top quality. Really lovely. Nice for couples to read together. Great for the coffee table.

Unique and highly recommended title.......2006-10-08

Based upon an original poem by Leonard Cohen which is showcased through the distinctive artwork of Henri Matisse, Dance Me To The End Of Love is a lyrical tribute to the emotion of love and its power to heal broken hearts and broken lives. Gracing the picturebook collections of family, school, and community libraries, this Dance Me To The End Of Love is a unique and highly recommended title that will have a very special appeal to young children and their parents,

The best birthday present ever!.......2005-11-13

Theo my boyfriend, produced this book for my birthday in Feb 2004, it was the best present I have received so thoughtful and different. The words and illustrations compliment each other beautifullly, it is a short book but definetly one you will want to read over and over again.

Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors: Drawing with Scissors (Smart About Art)

Average customer rating:

Disappointed in Matisse Drawing with Scissors

Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors: Drawing with Scissors (Smart About Art)
Jane O'Connor
Manufacturer: Grosset & Dunlap
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 044842519X

Customer Reviews:

Disappointed in Matisse Drawing with Scissors.......2006-08-12

Cute, but not as substantial as I would have liked.

Chasing Matisse: A Year in France Living My Dream

Average customer rating:

A book that befriends the artist in all of us
The beauty of Art and fun of travel all in one...
A great adventure of self-discovery
A Thoughtful Meditation on Travel, Art and Life
Chasing Matisse

Chasing Matisse: A Year in France Living My Dream
James Morgan
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0743237544

Book Description

Who hasn't had the fanthasy of leaving his or her old life behind to start over? What would happen if you gave up your job, city, state, and routine to move to another part of the world? Critically acclaimed writer and aspiring painter James Morgan does just that. Risking everything, he and his wife shed their old, settled life in a lovingly restored house in Little Rock, Arkansas, to travel in the footsteps of Morgan's hero, the painter Henri Matisse, and to find inspiration in Matisse's fierce struggle to live the life he knew he had to live. Part memoir, part travelogue, and part biography of Matisse, Chasing Matisse proves that you don't have to be wealthy to live the life you want; you just have to want it enough.

Morgan's riveting journey of self-discovery takes him, and us, from the earthy, brooding Picardy of Matisse's youth all the way to the luminous Nice of the painter's final years. In between, Morgan confronts, with the notebook of a journalist and the sketchpad of an artist, the places that Matisse himself saw and painted: bustling, romantic Paris; windswept Belle-île off the Brittany coast; Corsica, with its blazing southern light; the Pyrénees village of Collouire, where color became explosive in Matisse's hands; exotic Morocco, land of the secret interior life; and across the sybaritic French Riviera to spiritual Vence and the hillside Villa Le Rêve -- the Dream -- where the mature artist created so many of his masterpieces.

A journey from darkness to light, Chasing Matisse shows us how we can learn to see ourselves, others, and the world with fresh eyes. We look with Morgan out of some of the same windows through which Matisse himself found his subjects and take great heart from Matisse's indomitable, life-affirming spirit. For Matisse, living was an art, and he never stopped striving, never stopped creating, never stopped growing, never stopped reinventing himself. "The artist," he said, "must look at everything as though he were seeing it for the first time." That's the inspiring message of renewal that comes through on every page of Chasing Matisse. Funny, sad, and defiantly hopeful, this is a book that restores our faith in the possibility of dreams.

Customer Reviews:

A book that befriends the artist in all of us.......2007-09-02

This is a book I'm sure I'll reread many times. The author combines humor with depth, and the sense of adventure is inspiring. Right now I'm smiling, just remembering how pleasurable it was to read this book. author (unrelated to me) really did his research, too; I'm now thinking about Arnheim and Elins with renewed interest -- and I'll pursue some of the other books about Matisse as well.

The beauty of Art and fun of travel all in one..........2006-03-18

Here I am trapped in a dull grey/brown Northeast winter when I picked up this book and went on a great trip! As an artist I really loved Mr. Morgan's passion for Matisse, for art in general and I loved his sketches! As a traveler who never gets to travel enough I loved the journey he took me on through France. As a matter of fact I'm so inspired that I'm heading to France this June and I'm going to take another long look at Matisse! So if you love art...this is a terrific book, if you love travel...this is a terrific book. If you love both then you're a terrific person who will really enjoy this book!

A great adventure of self-discovery.......2006-03-11

I'm an American living in France for over 5 years now and I am an amateur painter. And I really like Matisse. So I was really excited when I found this book. I really like the author's humor, he turns what could be boring descriptions of their trip into very funny tales. The book is a mix of a peek into their lives, their adventure in France, the characters they meet, and oh yes, Matisse. I learned a lot in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's sketches and his website.

However, all that said, the book left me wanting more. I got the impression that at the end the author simply got tired of writing or ran out of material. For example, their summer in france only gets a few pages. What was the impact of his search for Matisse? How did it impact his art? Did he just stop chasing Matisse 3 months before he came home? I also would have liked to see more of his sketches as they really helped to imagine the places they went, the hotel rooms, etc.

Overall it was a great book. If you are interested in France, Matisse, or painting, I highly recommend this book!

A Thoughtful Meditation on Travel, Art and Life.......2005-10-02

The author, a writer and artist, is fascinated by the work of Matisse. He and his wife, also a writer, sell their house, leave their desk jobs and go off to France to follow in the footsteps of Matisse. The author chronicles their travels to the places that inspired Matisse - Paris, Collioure in the Pyrenees, Corsica, Belle-Ile off the coast of Britany and the South of France.

In these places the author learns not just to look but also to see. The facts of Matisse's life and his development as an artist are interwoven with the travel adventures of the author and his wife as they live their dream of starting over in a foreign country. A look into the soul of an artist and what we can learn from him if we seek to live the creative life, this book is vastly superior to the shallowness of "C'est La Vie" by Susie Gershman and her vacuous tale of leaving the US to live in Paris.

The only thing missing from "Chasing Matisse" is a map so that the reader can see the locations of the various places that are visited. It's also helpful to have on hand a copy of "Henri Matisse: A Retrospective", Museum of Modern Art 1992, while you read so that you can see the paintings that the author mentions extensively in the book.

Chasing Matisse.......2005-06-27

Oh the places you will go as you read James Morgan's fine book, Chasing Matisse. Morgan and his wife, Beth, leave their comfortable lives in Little Rock, Arkansas and set out for France to visit the places Henri Matisse once inhabited. The physical journey that Morgan takes the reader on makes the book worthwhile; however, it is the psychological journey Morgan takes as an artist that makes this book particularly compelling. Morgan, an accomplished writer, chooses to pursue a lifelong dream, painting. And, who better to lead him on this quest than his hero, Matisse? As he visits the places that stirred Matisse's imagination, Morgan learns "to see" as an artist, and he shares those sights as well as his insights with the reader. It takes a lot of courage to uproot oneself in order to pursue a dream, but Morgan does so and describes the process with such honesty and grace that the reader cannot help but be inspired. If you have ever thought about changing your life, you have to read Chasing Matisse. It's a book that stays with you long after the final page is turned.

The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Early Years, 1869-1908 (Unknown Matisse)

Average customer rating:

first rate!!
The Unknown Matisse Revealed
Painful Beginnings
Meet Matisse and Enter His Landscape for Reading Pleasure
Matisse's Colors

The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Early Years, 1869-1908 (Unknown Matisse)
Hilary Spurling
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0679434283
Release Date: 1998-10-27

Amazon.com

"Matisse was born in 1869 in northern France and grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, near the Belgian border, on the drab, cold, wet beet fields of French Flanders. The same area, culturally and geographically speaking, had produced Vincent van Gogh sixteen years before." Thus begins the first full biography of an artist who, more than any other, is associated with Mediterranean heat, brilliant color and light, and languid, luxurious interiors. As author Hilary Spurling points out, an open window is one of Matisse's frequent motifs. Given the climate of his youth, that image speaks more of escape than of the sea air of the French Riviera.

If all biographers wrote with Spurling's warmth, empathy, and intelligence, no one would likely want to read any other kind of book. The Unknown Matisse is thoroughly researched, with pages devoted to minutiae that Spurling imparts with wit and style, making every nuance of Matisse's early development fascinating. She tells too the story of Matisse's family life (Mme. Matisse risked her respectable reputation by adopting Henri's first, illegitimate daughter), his brilliant ideas about art, and the years it took for his paintings to find their rightful audience. It was her intention finally to give as much weight to Matisse's life as has been given to his work, but in the process of examining the man she sheds new light on the art as well. --Peggy Moorman

Book Description

Henri Matisse is one of the masters of twentieth-century art and a household word to millions of people who find joy and meaning in his light-filled, colorful images--yet, despite all the books devoted to his work, the man himself has remained a mystery. Now, in the hands of the superb biographer Hilary Spurling, the unknown Matisse becomes visible at last.

Matisse was born into a family of shopkeepers in 1869, in a gloomy textile town in the north of France. His environment was brightened only by the sumptuous fabrics produced by the local weavers--magnificent brocades and silks that offered Matisse his first vision of light and color, and which later became a familiar motif in his paintings. He did not find his artistic vocation until after leaving school, when he struggled for years with his father, who wanted him to take over the family seed-store. Escaping to Paris, where he was scorned by the French art establishment, Matisse lived for fifteen years in great poverty--an ordeal he shared with other young artists and with Camille Joblaud, the mother of his daughter, Marguerite.

But Matisse never gave up. Painting by painting, he struggled toward the revelation that beckoned to him, learning about color, light, and form from such mentors as Signac, Pissarro, and the Australian painter John Peter Russell, who ruled his own art colony on an island off the coast of Brittany. In 1898, after a dramatic parting from Joblaud, Matisse met and married Amélie Parayre, who became his staunchest ally. She and their two sons, Jean and Pierre, formed with Marguerite his indispensable intimate circle.

From the first day of his wedding trip to Ajaccio in Corsica, Matisse realized that he had found his spiritual home: the south, with its heat, color, and clear light. For years he worked unceasingly toward the style by which we know him now. But in 1902, just as he was on the point of achieving his goals as a painter, he suddenly left Paris with his family for the hometown he detested, and returned to the somber, muted palette he had so recently discarded.

Why did this happen? Art historians have called this regression Matisse's "dark period," but none have ever guessed the reason for it. What Hilary Spurling has uncovered is nothing less than the involvement of Matisse's in-laws, the Parayres, in a monumental scandal which threatened to topple the banking system and government of France. The authorities, reeling from the divisive Dreyfus case, smoothed over the so-called Humbert Affair, and did it so well that the story of this twenty-year scam--and the humiliation and ruin its climax brought down on the unsuspecting Matisse and his family--have been erased from memory until now.

It took many months for Matisse to come to terms with this disgrace, and nearly as long to return to the bold course he had been pursuing before the interruption. What lay ahead were the summers in St-Tropez and Collioure; the outpouring of "Fauve" paintings; Matisse's experiments with sculpture; and the beginnings of acceptance by dealers and collectors, which, by 1908, put his life on a more secure footing.

Hilary Spurling's discovery of the Humbert Affair and its effects on Matisse's health and work is an extraordinary revelation, but it is only one aspect of her achievement. She enters into Matisse's struggle for expression and his tenacious progress from his northern origins to the life-giving light of the Mediterranean with rare sensitivity. She brings to her task an astonishing breadth of knowledge about his family, about fin-de-siècle Paris, the conventional Salon painters who shut their doors on him, his artistic comrades, his early patrons, and his incipient rivalry with Picasso.

In Hilary Spurling, Matisse has found a biographer with a detective's ability to unearth crucial facts, the narrative power of a novelist, and profound empathy for her subject.

Customer Reviews:

first rate!!.......2007-09-19

i loved this book - many new insights on matisse, the preeminent modern artist - very well researched and written -

The Unknown Matisse Revealed.......2006-03-24

I was impatiently awaiting the arrival of The Unknown Matisse and have not been disappointed. Hilary Spurling has truly written a superb book. For all those who are interested in the passing from the old school of art to the new concepts that gave way to modern art as we understand it, this book is for you. This book compares favorably with John Richardson's massive Picasso biography. The Unknown Matisse is a book I will keep going back to over the years.

James Townsend

Painful Beginnings.......2006-01-27

Matisse has always suffered from bad press. In his home town he was known as a triple failure: He couldn't take over the family seed store, he didn't make a career in law work and he threw away a chance to be a popular Salon artist. When people saw his latest paintings, they were often overwhelmed and unprepared for what they saw. Only a few visionary collectors and fellow artists understood his ground-breaking efforts. Picasso and those who supported Picasso felt that they had to run down Matisse to help their own cause . . . despite having "borrowed" heavily from Matisse. Later, most of Matisse's early masterpieces were hidden away in foreign, private collections while crowds jeered at his latest work.

The pain of all this was immense for Matisse. But his private sorrows were made even greater by the difficulties he had in developing his style, the birth of an illegitimate child whom he acknowledged who suffered from serious health problems, and the poverty that dogged him until he was around 40. What is less well known is that his in-laws became embroiled in one of the most celebrated scandals of all time in France, and Matisse found himself drawn into saving them.

Ms. Spurling does well in capturing the agony of being Matisse.

Her style though leaves something to be desired. Much of the information is superficial rather than revealing. In many cases, I felt like I was reading someone's unreflective daily diary. An exception was the material on the Humbert Scandal which Ms. Spurling has also written about quite well in La Grande Therese.

Ms. Spurling also could have included more about Matisse's art in this book.

But you will learn a lot about Matisse from this book that you won't find in most other sources.

I found the recent companion volume, Matisse the Master, to be much more rewarding. If you decide to read only one of the two books, I suggest that one. But you may decide to come back and read this one later, as I did.

Meet Matisse and Enter His Landscape for Reading Pleasure.......2003-05-20

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) came from the somber northern region of France. The landscape of his youth was sketched in the somber colors of a provinical childhood. His family were seed merchants, sober and no nonsense in their approach to the realities of life. As Matisse grew his art expanded as he journeyed to Paris and to the South of France where he discovered the glories of coloration in his art. Matisse was the greatest of the Fauvist painters; the chief rival of Picasso and the grand old man of French painting.
In this first volume of her life of Matisse, Hilary Spurling the British born biographer draws France in the dawn of the 20th
century as we see Matisse struggle from poverty to stability. He was supported by a loving wife, good friends and a genius which
burst forth in all its glory as the great master continue to grow in his art.
The book is well illustrated, detailed in its description of Matisse's families, friends and opponents and well worth the reader's time.
With the current exhibition of Matisse-Picasso at the Metropolitan Museum of Mordern Art it is a pleasure to turn to Spurling's fine volume on Matisse to gain further insights into this giant of modern art. I recommend this book to everyone from art expert to the educated general reader seeking further insights into the evolution of a painter of genius.

Matisse's Colors.......2001-11-29

This is a genuinely inspiring biography, clearly written and deeply felt, powerfully communicating the revolutionary ideas of what painting could and should be that drove, and were driven by, Henri Matisse. Spurling vividly describes Matisse's struggles to balance his need to paint with financial reality and his society's disdain, often using the artist's own letters and recollections to depict his growing obsession with color and impatience with representation.

Customer Reviews:

Matisse.......2005-07-22

Pretty good book. I used it for an essay at school and it provided some valuable information and was my primary source. I thought it was a little quote heavy, as half the book is quotes from Matisse or art critics. Some are valuable, but others are just useless fluff. For example, in the begining there is a page long paragraph devoted to why everyone called Matisse a "doctor" and a hedonist or something. It bears no significance to what Matisse did.

I also wish that the book would have talked more extensively about his impact and effects on art. The book says some but the information isn't really centralized and its sort of here and there throughout the book. I wish there would have been a couple pages at the end or something about it.

Otherwise there is a lot of pictures and they're all real good quality. Also had pretty good analysis of some of his paintings, like their meanings and compositional elements that make it great etc... It also covers his entire life, before Fauvism to paper collages. I recommend it.

A good book with accurate color.......2001-01-12

This is a wonderful book. The color seems very accurate. There are many artbooks with inaccurate color reproduced. I compared several photos in this book with the real Matisse's paintings, the color is all accurate.

Henri Matisse (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)

Average customer rating:

Outstanding Series
Well thought out...

Henri Matisse (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)
Mike Venezia
Manufacturer: Children's Press (CT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0516261460

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding Series.......2001-02-04

Mike Venezia makes famous artists come to life. I have used these books in my reading class and have inspired reluctant readers to read non-fiction. Ages 6-11 enjoy the lively language and great reproductions.

Well thought out..........2000-03-31

I was really impressed with not only how wonderfully the book related to children, but to the colorful art work as well. My son asked lots of questions and related this book to his life.

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