Matisse Henri - Matisse the master: a life of Henri Matisse, the conquest of colour, 1909-1954

Praise for Matisse the Master:

Monumental and gripping deepens our understanding of the great painter Sunday Times

Magnificent makes one understand just how hard it is to make great art, and so helps the reader to see that art freshly Martin Gayford, Sunday Telegraph

Engrossing, a triumphant story not just a wonderful biography, deftly characterized, richly human but a superb piece of art criticism. A cobweb-clearing biography, sweeping away almost all our preconceptions Philip Hensher, Daily Telegraph

With the conclusion of this hugely ambitious and important two-volume opus, the study of Matisse as both man and artist will never be the same again. While it should be required reading for all students of art history, it is also highly entertaining and provocative. Truly an epic achievement Iain Gale, Scotland on Sunday

Glorious, page-turning fixes Matisses story with great humanity and rigorous scholarship. A biography with the tact and timing of a very good novel Michael Pye, Scotsman

What Spurling turns out to have written is not a mere art book but a marvellous and intensely touching epic of love. Her analysis of the paintings is always spot-on, beautifully written and fascinatingly supported by Matisses own letters. A joy throughout, and worthy of the paintings Robert Hughes, Vogue

Spurling has settled scores, righted wrongs and revealed realms of experience unsuspected. This tremendous work is a complete expression of the life of Matisse, and necessarily a splendid account of his art Richard Howard, New York Times Book Review

Matisse, Self-Portrait, 1918

MATISSE THE MASTER

A LIFE OF HENRI MATISSE: VOLUME TWO , 19091954

Hilary Spurling

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL , England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road,
Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany,
Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL , England

www.penguin.com

First published in the United States of America by Knopf 2005
Published simultaneously in Great Britain by Hamish Hamilton 2005
Published in Penguin Books 2006
1

Copyright Hilary Spurling, 2005
Copyright Succession H. Matisse / DACS, London, 2005 for all works by Henri Matisse
Copyright Succession Picasso / DACS, London, 2005 for all works by Pablo Picasso
Copyright AD AGP, Paris, and DACS, London, 2005 for all works by Maurice Denis,
Jules Leon Flandrin, and Alberto Giacometti
All rights reserved for all photographs from Archives Matisse, Paris
Copyright DACS, London, 2005 for all works by Arvid Fougstedt
Copyright ARS, New York, and DACS, London, 2005 for all works by Pierre Matisse
Copyright 2005 by Joanna T. Steichen for all photographs by Edward Steichen

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders.
The publishers will be glad to correct any errors or omissions in future editions.

The moral right of the author has been asserted

All rights reserved
Without limiting the rights under copyright
reserved above, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior
written permission of both the copyright owner and
the above publisher of this book

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-14-190974-5

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

All images by Henri Matisse are Copyright Succession Henri Matisse.

AMP: Archives Matisse, Paris

RMN: Agence photographique de la Runion des Muses Nationaux, Paris

Frontispiece: Matisse, Self-Portrait, oil on canvas, 1918 (Dpt du Muse du Louvre, Muse Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrsis. Photograph: Claude Gaspari)

Title page: The Hands of MatisseMatisse drawing on a lithography stone, photograph, 1953, Ina Bandy (Copyright Ina Bandy/RAPHO, Paris)

page Matisse, Composition No. 1, watercolour, 1909 (Copyright The State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow)

Matisse, Nymph & Satyr, central panel of triptych made for Haus Hohenhof, Hagen, ceramic mural, spring 1908 (Karl-Ernst Osthaus Museum der Stadt Hagen. Photograph: Achim Kukulies, Dsseldorf)

Paul Czanne, The Rape (The Abduction), oil on canvas, 1867 (By kind permission of the Provost and Fellows of Kings College, Cambridge, on loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Photograph: Copyright the Fitzwilliam Museum)

Maurice Denis, Cupid Bearing Psyche Upward (panel 7), oil on canvas, 1909 (Copyright The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)

Matisse, Woman with Closed Eyes, ink on paper, 1910 (Photo courtesy AMP)

Arvid Fougstedt, Matisse Teaching Scandinavian Artists in His Studio, India ink, 1910 (Boras Kunstmuseum, Sweden)

Marie Vassilieff, La Bohme du XXe sicle, self-portrait, pen, ink, gouache, 1929 (Collection Claude Berns, Paris)

Olga Meerson in a fur-trimmed robe, photograph, c. 190811 (Private collection/photo: Nicholas Spurling)

Phalanx Class (Kandinskys Class in the Phalanx School, Munich), 1902, including Olga Meerson and Wassily Kandinskys, photographer unknown (Gabriele Mnter und Johannes Eichner Stiftung, Stdtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich)

Matisse, Girl with Black Cat (Marguerite Matisse), oil on canvas, 1910 (Photographer: Peter Willi/Artothek)

Matisse, Bonjour Mlle Levy, ink on paper, 18 August 1909 (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Bequest of Harriet Lane Levy)

Matisse, sketch of himself with nude model on beach, in a letter to Manguin, 11 August 1909 (Archives Jean-Pierre Manguin)

Edward Steichen, Henri Matisse Working on La Serpentine, platinum print, 1909 (Photo courtesy AMP)

House at Issy-les-Moulineaux, photograph, c. 1910 (Photo courtesy AMP)

Camoin and Marquet in the studio at Issy, c. 1910 (Photo courtesy AMP)

Floods, rue Bara and boulevard du Point du Jour, Issy-les-Moulineaux postcard, ed.: MCFLIssy (Seine), 1910 (Collection and photograph: Issy-les-Moulineaux, Muse Franais de la carte Jouer)

Matisse, Matthew Prichard, etching, 1914 (Photograph Institut national dhistoire de fart, bibliothque [collections Jacques Doucet], Paris)