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Article: Rediscovering Matisse.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- October 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Hilary Spurling Matisse the Master, A Life of Henri Matisse: The Conquest of Colour, 1909-1954. Knopf, 544 pages, $40
Even those of us who have loved Matisse's work since we began to look at paintings as a serious interest could not have suspected what it had cost this great artist to persevere in his vocation. Pleasure had so often been invoked as the key to an understanding of his achievement--"Un nom qui rime avec Nice ... peintre du plaisir, sultan de Riviera, hedoniste raffine," as Pierre Schneider sardonically described this mistaken characterization of Matisse--that it has come as a shock to discover the sheer scale of adversity that had to be endured at ...