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Henri Matisse
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| Those who expect a
painter's life to be appropriately colourful may well be disappointed
by the life-story of Matisse. It is perhaps more than a coincidence
that, in much the same way as throughout his career the artist
has ruled out from his work all that in the terminology of aesthetics
is named the ' accidental, ' thus, up to his eightieth year
(which he has just triumphantly inaugurated), no unusual or
dramatic incident has ruffled the even tenour of Matisse's life.
Indeed it may seem surprising that one who has been so bold
an innovator and opened up so many new approaches to art's high
places, should have led such a calm existence, seconded by a
happily robust constitution. Which obviously is far from tall
vine with the romantic portrait one might hope to give of a
' revolutionary ' artist, when we call to mind the lives of
such men as Delacroix, Courbet, Jonkind, Gauguin or Van Gogh. |
Nor must we forget
that in his youth Matisse dutifully copied such works as Chardin's
The Ray, Philippe de Champaigne's Dead Christ, and Carrache's
Chasse. The truth may be that the anxieties and uncertainties
which inevitably beset a genius so daring as his always operated
far below the surface, and thus have left no mark on his appearance.
One of the ' human ' interests of art-criticism lies in discovering
just what it was that gave great artists in their early years
their love of painting and the impulse to paint. In Matisse's
case, the fact that his mother had a charming talent for painting
flowers on china seems inadequate as an explanation. Nor have
we much to go on in the circumstances of the artist's early
youth—such as the fact that Matisse, who was born at Le
Cateau in the north of France, was originally intended by his
father to enter the magistracy and duly studied law (without,
as we are told of some other budding artists, making sketches
in his exercise-books when his teacher was not looking).
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