Henri Matisse Quotes

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Henri Matisse

Profession : Artist

Birth : December 31, 1869

Work cures everything.

Henri Matisse

Exactitude is not truth.

Henri Matisse

It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression.

Henri Matisse

You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.

Henri Matisse

Cutting into color reminds me of the sculptor's direct carving.

Henri Matisse

I'm growing old, I delight in the past.

Henri Matisse

I have been no more than a medium, as it were.

Henri Matisse

In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking on a tightrope.

Henri Matisse

Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.

Henri Matisse

Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is.

Henri Matisse

A picture must possess a real power to generate light and for a long time now I've been conscious of expressing myself through light or rather in light.

Henri Matisse