256 Quotes by Henri Matisse

One must, of course, have one’s entire experience behind one and not have lost the freshness of instinct.

I wouldn’t mind turning into a vermilion goldfish.

I shan’t get free of my emotion by copying the tree faithfully, or by drawing its leaves one by one in the common language, but only after identifying myself with it.

Colours have their own distinctive beauty that you have to preserve, just as in music you try to preserve sounds. It is a question of organization, of finding the arrangement that will keep the beauty and freshness of the colour.

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.

Siempre hay flores para aquellos que desean verlas.

Put a colour upon a canvas – it not only colours with that colour the part of the canvas to which the colour has been applied, but it also colours the surrounding space with the complementary.

A certain color tones you up. It’s the concentration of timbres.

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.