Matisse on Looking at Life…
Matisse: Self Portrait
1918: Collection Musée Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis
(Extract from a conversation with Alison Harper)
“I have always been an admirer of Henri Matisse and when I begun to think of a quote that I have drawn inspiration from this is what I recalled and would like to share…
Matisse notes that creation begins with vision, which is itself a creative operation. His affirmation that it is essential for the artist to look at everything as if he were seeing it for the first time, as though he were a child, recalls the Impressionist painters’ belief in the importance of preserving a fresh and innocent vision… without which it would be impossible to express oneself in an original personal way.
Alison Harper & Henri Matisse’s Snail
1996 Tate Modern
“…this courage is essential to the artist, who has to look at everything as though he were seeing it for the first time: He has to look at life as he did when he was a child and, if he loses that faculty, he can not express himself in an original, that is, a personal way.”
Matisse, 1953.