Quote #33

The artist has but one idea. He is born with it and spends a lifetime developing it and making it breathe. I basically work without theory. I am aware only of the forces I use, and I move along the course of the picture's creation, pushed by an idea that I come to know only gradually as it develops.

More from Henri Matisse

  1. Seek the strongest Color effect possible... the content is of no importance.
  2. The essential thing is to spring forth, to express the bolt of lightning one senses upon contact with a thing. The function of the artist i…
  3. Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.
  4. We must see all life as if we were children.
  5. In modern art, it is undoubtedly to Cezanne that I owe the most.
  6. Without passion there is no art.
  7. I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.
  8. The artist only sees old truths in a new light,because there are no new truths.

All Henri Matisse quotes