Product Description
From the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession come three intensely observed, beautifully written stories, each inspired by a painting of Henri Matisse, each revealing the intimate connection between seeing and feeling. In A.S. Byatt's hands, these tableaux come to life, exposing the unruliness of grief, desire and creativity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Disappointed
What a disappointment! I thought I purchase the edition with color illustrations of three Matisse paintings. Instead it was a poor quality binding, cover and with pencil drawings.

Pat Nuezel

As sensuous as paint?
Let's get the worst out of the way first. These three stories range from pretty good to excellent -- with Byatt, how could they not? -- but they make slim reading for a stand-alone book. All the same, two of them at least are polished works of art, all the more fascinating for exploring that no-mans-land between the visual and the literary.

The Matisse connection is both peripheral and central. Peripheral, in that the stories all spring from somebody looking at, or thinking about, a Matisse. Central, in that Byatt attempts to map out the distinction between what can be expressed only in words, what only in paint, and what can be translated between the two. Her choice of Matisse as a touchstone is appropriate; one of the most genial and sensuous of artists, his works appeal directly to the retina and bypass the mind. Or seem to; there is more to him than meets the eye. Two of the three stories make the eye/mind distinction explicit. In one, an artist is tongue-tied discussing his paintings with a gallery owner: "He cannot tell her that they are not about littleness but about the infinite terror of the brilliance of colour, of which he could almost die, he doesn't think those things in words anyway." In another, a critic is said to find "language as sensuous as paint." Both characters into trouble with their views, but Byatt herself tackles the issue head-on. Almost as though to demonstrate the inadequacy of language, you can see her trying to splash words around like paint, as in this description of a boy with chicken pox anointed with calamine lotion: "He has the same skin too, but at the moment it is a wonderfully humped and varied terrain of rosy peaks and hummocks, mostly the pink of those boring little begonias with fleshly leaves, but some raging into salmon-deeps and some extinct volcanoes with umber and ochre crusts." Repulsively inappropriate, perhaps, but quite brilliant!

In the first story, "Medusa's Ankles," the visual element is secondary to the evolving relationship between a middle-aged woman and her hairdresser, who has a Matisse reproduction hanging in his salon. In the second, "Art Work," the connection appears to be even more contrived, since it begins with Byatt's own description of the Matisse reproduced on the book's cover, which has no literal place in the story at all. But all the characters in it are artists in one way or another, and Matisse becomes the measure of the differences between them, which in turn impacts their real lives. In the third, "The Chinese Lobster," two academics meet in a restaurant to discuss the work of an angry student engaged in a feminist dissertation on Matisse involving some radical desecration of his images. What begins almost as a philosophical discussion comes to reflect directly on the inner lives of all three characters, making this the most satisfying story of the three. But all are eminently worth reading (perhaps even buying).

Pretense and Plausibility
A.S. Byatt, the Booker Prize winning author of "Possession," attempts an impressionistic portrait of the tension between aesthetics and emotion, with allusions to Who-Doesn't-Like-Matisse, and literary nods to Woolf and other masters of the ouvre.It's all so very pretty and stylized, and filled with such small ideas posing as BIG THOUGHTS. Imagine, Art as life! Life as art! Both and neither as everyday things that we just-took-for-granted!

In such an important book, little considerations like plausibility and nuance of character may be dispensed with. Consider the following summaries of Byatt's three easy pieces: Uptight scholar throws tantrum and wrecks a once Rubenesque styling salon gone Post-Modern; Lower classish maid/nanny controls her apparent controllers--an uptight editor and her uptight, once promising painter spouse, and then upstages the latter in a didn't-see-that-coming showing of her sculptures made from her employers' throwaways(!), and two uptighters: He, an impossibly drawn caricature of cruel academia; she--the only believable voice here--a Dean mollify his pathological ravings (and posible gropings) of a ambiguously portrayed but clearly troubled graduate student.

Byatt doesn't let our minds wander and think and fill in the blank spaces: She pretty much covers the entire canvas with starkly drawn, shallow pictures of these tightly-wound characters. Like the small-scale achievements of her protagonists, Byatt writes very fine miniatures--bursts of adjectives as metaphor here, a keenly observed, "revealing" detail there, but the whole mess comes apart if you step back and try to make sense of it-the opposite result of Impressionist work.As others have noted, Byatt focuses more on language and feeling and all that psychology stuff, but if these are embedded within fable-like set pieces we're not about to believe the actors' suppressed and repressed emotions, let alone their facades. I'm not sure who the joke's on when Byatt basically paints a word picture of a vulva in the first story, in which she also places "cunning" followed by "linguist" in the same paragraph. Perhaps this is Dada-esque subversion or a Fauvist attempt to awaken our senses.

The stories succeed only in a gigantic suspension bridge of disbelief.Rather than Impressionism, this strikes me as miniatures of superb writing set against a large trompe de l'oeil canvas, and, for the most part, the trompe is on us.

Byatt & Matisse not a perfect match
Let me begin my review by stating that I am not a big fan of the "description-for-description's sake" school of writing, with supposed "beautiful" prose standing in for an actual story. Fantastic imagery and specific details can be a great addition to a book that is already succeeding with engaging characters and a forward-moving story, but on their own I just find it to be tedious. That said, Byatt's collection of three longish short-stories has within it moments and characters I found myself drawn to, and writing that I enjoyed the rhythms and construction of, but overall this was a bit of a task for me to read.

The first offering of Matisse-inspired stories, "Medusa's Ankles," was my favorite, probably because it involved conflict that was both internal and external, with an un-sympathetic protagonist who I found compassion and understanding for by its end. The third story, "The Chinese Lobster," makes more use of dialogue than mood or overly poetic language, but it ultimately stumbles in its aims by not giving the reader a situation or characters we can care a whit about.

By the time I got to the second piece, "Art Work" (yes, I read them out of order), my patience with the book was waning and I wasn't rewarded in my decision to save the longest story (50-plus pages) for last. Essentially an art history course wrapped in fiction, with palettes and colours and lack of colour and shadows explored in numbing detail, the story was a misfire for me at the start. Long passages of scenic and location-specific descriptions confuse and disorient, rather than ground and illuminate this reader before any characters are even witnessed, much less introduced. The characters then reveal themselves to be paper-thin, appearing only to allow Ms. Byatt to work her muscles of laundry-list style description and repetitive sentence-structuring. Overall, the whole experience of reading this felt like too much work for too little reward.

Sadly, Byatt Misses The Mark Here
In symphonic music, they call the aural equivalent of these stories "tone poems". I'm not sure if there is exactly the right description in literature for what Byatt aimed for here, but I think that analogy works. Byatt hoped, I believe, to cement her stories to Matisse in such a way that her words and these tales would represent in image the vivid colors and expression of Matisse's paintings. None of these three stories really gripped me or lingers well in my memory. I think it's fair to say Byatt was hoping to cast her female characters' views on life as a surrogate for how art itself might be viewed as a reflection of human experience. ... Read more

Product Description
Few artists have explored genres and techniques with such curiosity and pleasure as Henri Matisse, whose fascination with the relationship between interior and exterior forms occupied him throughout his career. In the early 1950s, he chose to dedicate his last years to the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence and the nursery school in his hometown of Le Cateau-Cambrésis, both in the South of France. These sites represent a culmination of all Matisse's earlier visual and spatial explorations.

This book sheds new light on the development of Matisse's oeuvre, which spans some 60 years. Lavishly illustrated with almost 400 images, this deluxe volume includes beautiful reproductions of the artist's most famous paintings paired with lesser-known documents and photographs culled from the archives of his estate. The authors also gathered first-hand accounts related by numerous participants in the Vence and Le Cateau projects. The result is a fascinating, almost day-to-day look at Matisse's process as he created these works, and an intimate portrait of both the artist and the man.AUTHOR BIO: The late René Percheron was head of the museum of national antique art in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, and a lecturer on the history of art and photography. Christian Brouder is a researcher at CNRS, the national organization for scientific research in Paris. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Very satisfying book
Great photography that puts you inside from many great angles and outside from all around that beautiful space for worship. The description is also interesting, though sometimes too detailed about the process and the back and forth between the interested parties. The photos of HM's process of setting up his hotel rooms as a studio are fascinating, iconic. Also so many photos of details like the priest's vestments he designed, the experimental drawings he did leading up to the final forms and the summary of his early work as it lead into the later glass and architectural work: so well presented, so many large photos...

Offering an intimate portrait of the artist in work and life
Primarily known for his luminous color paintings, the French artist Henri Matisse was also involved in designing stunningly beautiful stained glass windows and even ventured into the realm of architecture as well. Matisse: From Color To Architecture is a seminal work by Rene Percheron and Christian Brouder and the first to focus on these lesser known endeavors by one of France's most renowned painters. Offering an intimate portrait of the artist in work and life with a focus upon Matisse's work in his final years on the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence and the nursery school in his hometown of Le Cateayu-Cambresis (both of these buildings are located in the south of France), this 384 page compendium is enhanced with 396 illustrations (247 of which are in full color) and includes beautiful reproductions of Matisse's most famous paintings drawn from the collections of Centre Georges Pompidou, the Hermitage Museum, the Barnes Foundation, and the National Gallery of Art. These works are paired with documents and photographs culled from the archives of the Matisse estate. Included are first-hand accounts from the participants in the Vence and Le Cateau projects. Matisse: From Color To Architecture is an original and recommended contribution to personal, professional, academic, and community library Art History and Architectural Studies collections.
... Read more

Product Description
Aged 75, Matisse felt he had said all he had to say in the medium of paint, and embarked on his next period in his career as an artist. Using only scissors and coloured paper, he produced a series of cut-outs which he published in the idiosyncratic album, "Jazz" (1947). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Beauty of Simplicity
This relatively modest book is nevertheless the single best work to have appeared on Matisse's great cut-outs (with the exception of a 1977 National Gallery of Art catalogue), which he made from 1947-1954.John Elderfield's essay discusses the genesis of the cut-outs, and places them in the context of 20th century art in an elegant manner which is refreshingly free of art-historical jargon.Elderfield's essay is followed by a section of color plates which, for the most part, are superbly designed and arranged.Matisse's delicious eye-candy is allowed to speak for itself.The reader is continually dazzled by the purity of color and simplicity of form, and the chronological arrangement of the plates seems to re-create the genesis of the works as they evolved in the artist's mind.However, the single problem I have with this otherwise nearly perfect book is that a number of the plates are far too small, particularly the illustration of the "Large Decoration With ! Masks," which reduces a 30-foot cut-out to the size of a postage stamp, neatly destroying any ability to imagine the beauty of the original work.Also, the color reproduction could be better - the plates, except in one particular print run I have come across, have an odd, bleached or washed-out look that lessens the impact of Matisse's colors.Nevertheless, I still recommend the book for its excellent design and writing.It is a marvelous introduction to the aesthetics behind some of the most simple yet beautiful works of 20th century art. ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Matisse is one of the masters of twentieth-century art and a household word to millions of people who find joy and meaning in his light-filled, colorful images--yet, despite all the books devoted to his work, the man himself has remained a mystery. Now, in the hands of the superb biographer Hilary Spurling, the unknown Matisse becomes visible at last.

Matisse was born into a family of shopkeepers in 1869, in a gloomy textile town in the north of France. His environment was brightened only by the sumptuous fabrics produced by the local weavers--magnificent brocades and silks that offered Matisse his first vision of light and color, and which later became a familiar motif in his paintings. He did not find his artistic vocation until after leaving school, when he struggled for years with his father, who wanted him to take over the family seed-store. Escaping to Paris, where he was scorned by the French art establishment, Matisse lived for fifteen years in great poverty--an ordeal he shared with other young artists and with Camille Joblaud, the mother of his daughter, Marguerite.

But Matisse never gave up. Painting by painting, he struggled toward the revelation that beckoned to him, learning about color, light, and form from such mentors as Signac, Pissarro, and the Australian painter John Peter Russell, who ruled his own art colony on an island off the coast of Brittany. In 1898, after a dramatic parting from Joblaud, Matisse met and married Amélie Parayre, who became his staunchest ally. She and their two sons, Jean and Pierre, formed with Marguerite his indispensable intimate circle.

From the first day of his wedding trip to Ajaccio in Corsica, Matisse realized that he had found his spiritual home: the south, with its heat, color, and clear light. For years he worked unceasingly toward the style by which we know him now. But in 1902, just as he was on the point of achieving his goals as a painter, he suddenly left Paris with his family for the hometown he detested, and returned to the somber, muted palette he had so recently discarded.

Why did this happen? Art historians have called this regression Matisse's "dark period," but none have ever guessed the reason for it. What Hilary Spurling has uncovered is nothing less than the involvement of Matisse's in-laws, the Parayres, in a monumental scandal which threatened to topple the banking system and government of France. The authorities, reeling from the divisive Dreyfus case, smoothed over the so-called Humbert Affair, and did it so well that the story of this twenty-year scam--and the humiliation and ruin its climax brought down on the unsuspecting Matisse and his family--have been erased from memory until now.

It took many months for Matisse to come to terms with this disgrace, and nearly as long to return to the bold course he had been pursuing before the interruption. What lay ahead were the summers in St-Tropez and Collioure; the outpouring of "Fauve" paintings; Matisse's experiments with sculpture; and the beginnings of acceptance by dealers and collectors, which, by 1908, put his life on a more secure footing.

Hilary Spurling's discovery of the Humbert Affair and its effects on Matisse's health and work is an extraordinary revelation, but it is only one aspect of her achievement. She enters into Matisse's struggle for expression and his tenacious progress from his northern origins to the life-giving light of the Mediterranean with rare sensitivity. She brings to her task an astonishing breadth of knowledge about his family, about fin-de-siècle Paris, the conventional Salon painters who shut their doors on him, his artistic comrades, his early patrons, and his incipient rivalry with Picasso.

In Hilary Spurling, Matisse has found a biographer with a detective's ability to unearth crucial facts, the narrative power of a novelist, and profound empathy for her subject.


From the Hardcover edition.Amazon.com Review
"Matisse was born in 1869 in northern France and grew up inBohain-en-Vermandois, near the Belgian border, on the drab, cold, wetbeet fields of French Flanders. The same area, culturally andgeographically speaking, had produced Vincent van Gogh sixteen yearsbefore." Thus begins the first full biography of an artist who, morethan any other, is associated with Mediterranean heat, brilliant colorand light, and languid, luxurious interiors. As author Hilary Spurlingpoints out, an open window is one of Matisse's frequent motifs. Giventhe climate of his youth, that image speaks more of escape than of thesea air of the French Riviera.

If all biographers wrote with Spurling's warmth, empathy, andintelligence, no one would likely want to read any other kind ofbook. The Unknown Matisse is thoroughly researched, with pagesdevoted to minutiae that Spurling imparts with wit and style, makingevery nuance of Matisse's early development fascinating. She tells toothe story of Matisse's family life (Mme. Matisse risked herrespectable reputation by adopting Henri's first, illegitimatedaughter), his brilliant ideas about art, and the years it took forhis paintings to find their rightful audience. It was her intentionfinally to give as much weight to Matisse's life as has been given tohis work, but in the process of examining the man she sheds new lighton the art as well. --Peggy Moorman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

First of the two volume standard biography of a Master Artist
Visiting NYC for two weeks coincident with the limited exhibition of Matisse's work at the Museum of Modern Art, I was finally driven to begin reading the two volume biography by Spurling. This comment follows completion of the first volume. Tomorrow on to the second. It has been quite useful to have both the fine MoMA exhibition and additional works from its permanent collection available as well as the classics at the Met, while reading the book. A fair proportion in both settings were created during the period covered by the book. It is commonplace to base discussions of Matisse, less so with Picasso, on the comparison with Picasso. There is no doubt from the sources, that much of their careers involved awareness of the others existence and reaction to that fact. In this volume, Picasso enters onto the scene only near the end as both he and Matisse produce seminal works, Picasso's Brothel and Matisse's Dance. My own take on their lives, enlightened by this excellent biography of Matisse, is that, whatever may be ones conclusions as to their work, Picasso had by far the easier road to his achievements in the first decade of the 20th century than did Matisse. Picasso was born to an artistic family and was always the golden boy, as far as they and many friends were concerned. At 19, he was doing highly professional and generally accepted work, although too derivative for his taste and desire to be recognized as what he always knew he was meant to be: the greatest artist in Paris- which meant, to him, the greatest artist in the world. Matisse was born into a family and social setting which abhorred the idea of art as a way of life, had few who thought him even talented, and, at the age of 31 (in 1900), was still struggling to survive as an artist and to be judged as worthy of the title. His story is the classic one of the desperate struggle of an Original, against all odds, to support himself and his family, while going his own way against the tide.
This book tells the story with clarity and literary skill so as to make the book almost un-put-downable. It is mandatory reading for any layperson seeking to understand Matisse and his work. It is recommended reading for anyone seeking to know Matisse better than any other source will allow (to understand his life and where the work stands within it; there are other, very fine monographs, focussed on the art-work itself, which must be read for a fuller picture of the whole man).
A point about the book production: the paperbound copy of this volume which I read fell apart in the process; whether a fluke of the assembly line or a common risk, I do not know. I have the hardbound version of the second volume.

One of the best ever
A good friend gave me Matisse the Master, the second volume of Hilary Spurling's two-volume biography. I was 100 pages into it when I decided I really needed to re-start at the beginning, so I bought The Unknown Matisse. It is one of the best biographies I've ever read.
Matisse began his life in a small town where existence was still virtually medieval. With impassable roads for much of the year, life was basic and art was suspect. Despite disapproval and ridicule for his ambitions, Matisse went on to become one of the two most famous and influential artists of the 2oth century. Spurling sheds light on Matisse's struggles and humiliations as well as putting his experiences into the context of his time. You understand his later reticence after the Humbert Affair- a Bernie Madoff scenario- in which his in-laws were involved. Spurling introduces Matisse's friends, supporters and detractors and makes all the interactions so fascinating that it becomes a natural follow-up to Google all these names and follow their stories too. And then you are eager for Volume Two.

first rate!!
i loved this book - many new insights on matisse, the preeminent modern artist - very well researched and written -

The Unknown Matisse Revealed
I was impatiently awaiting the arrival of The Unknown Matisse and have not been disappointed. Hilary Spurling has truly written a superb book. For all those who are interested in the passing from the old school of art to the new concepts that gave way to modern art as we understand it, this book is for you. This book compares favorably with John Richardson's massive Picasso biography. The Unknown Matisse is a book I will keep going back to over the years.

James Townsend

Painful Beginnings
Matisse has always suffered from bad press.In his home town he was known as a triple failure: He couldn't take over the family seed store, he didn't make a career in law work and he threw away a chance to be a popular Salon artist.When people saw his latest paintings, they were often overwhelmed and unprepared for what they saw.Only a few visionary collectors and fellow artists understood his ground-breaking efforts.Picasso and those who supported Picasso felt that they had to run down Matisse to help their own cause . . . despite having "borrowed" heavily from Matisse.Later, most of Matisse's early masterpieces were hidden away in foreign, private collections while crowds jeered at his latest work.

The pain of all this was immense for Matisse.But his private sorrows were made even greater by the difficulties he had in developing his style, the birth of an illegitimate child whom he acknowledged who suffered from serious health problems, and the poverty that dogged him until he was around 40.What is less well known is that his in-laws became embroiled in one of the most celebrated scandals of all time in France, and Matisse found himself drawn into saving them.

Ms. Spurling does well in capturing the agony of being Matisse.

Her style though leaves something to be desired.Much of the information is superficial rather than revealing.In many cases, I felt like I was reading someone's unreflective daily diary.An exception was the material on the Humbert Scandal which Ms. Spurling has also written about quite well in La Grande Therese.

Ms. Spurling also could have included more about Matisse's art in this book.

But you will learn a lot about Matisse from this book that you won't find in most other sources.

I found the recent companion volume, Matisse the Master, to be much more rewarding.If you decide to read only one of the two books, I suggest that one.But you may decide to come back and read this one later, as I did. ... Read more

Product Description
Featuring one week and one full-page image per spread, this title contains hardcover cloth-bound. ... Read more

Product Description
What makes Henri Matisse a 'modernist', when so much of his work harks back to older French traditions and the artist himself never seems entirely at home in the twentieth century? Bock-Weiss addresses the paradox of Matisse's status as a canonical modern artist, but one whose work and career cannot be mapped onto conventional histories of an insurrectionary modernism. She frames this issue by positioning the artist in surprising contexts: his manipulation of mass media in shaping his public image, his singular relationship with Gertrude Stein, and his painterly use of cinematic devices in the 1920s to respond to the crisis of cubism. Equally unprecedented is the author's close examination of two major critical responses to Matisse's work: a formalist defense by the Russian dance critic Andre Levinson, and the claim by Pierre Schneider and others that Matisse is a spiritual artist on the Byzantine/Islamic model. Providing neither a unified portrait of the artist nor a new definition of modernism itself, the author considers the many-faceted elements of the artist's life, work, and reputation to present a comprehensive new framework for viewing both Matisse and modernism. ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Matisse created some of his most exquisite works bycutting shapes out of paper. Delightfully entertaining and playfullyinventive, his "paintings with scissors" are also a superbintroduction to the most basic artistic concepts: color, line, andform.

This engaging and accessible look at Matisse’s cut-outs, arguably the highlight of his magnificent career, follows the artist as he goes in search of pure forms of expression. Illustrated with beautiful reproductions and details of Matisse’s most famous works, the book explains how the artist’s paintings evolved over the course of his life, gradually becoming flatter, simpler and more chromatically pure until they resembled the cut outs themselves. Matisse’s spontaneity, his love of bold colors, and his seemingly effortless ability to capture movement on paper make him one of the most appealing artists to children. Fun and easy-to-follow, this exploration of Matisse’s cut-outs invites children of all ages to grab a pair of scissors, find some colored paper, and "paint." ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso have long been seen as the twin giants of modern art, as polar opposites but also as complementary figures. Between them they are the originators of many of the most significant innovations of 20th-century painting and sculpture, but their relationship has rarely been explored in all of its closeness and complexity. In spite of their initial rivalry, the two masters eventually acknowledged one another as equals, becoming, in their old age, increasingly important to one another both artistically and personally. From the time of their initial encounters in 1906 in Gertrude and Leo Stein's Paris studio until 1917, they individually produced some of the greatest art of the 20th century and maintained an openly competitive relationship brimming with intense innovation. This period saw them create such works as Picasso's majestic "Woman with a Fan" of 1908 and Matisse's great portrait of his wife of 1913. Matisse responds to Synthetic Cubism in his "Piano Lesson" of 1916 and Picasso comes back in turn with a new, more decorative Cubism in "Three Musicians" of 1921. The 20s saw them grow apart, as Matisse moved from Paris to Nice and Picasso became involved with the Surrealists, but the 30s brought them together again, through their sheer fame and devotion to reality-based art. Their story continues until Matisse's death in 1954, when Picasso paid his friend and colleague tribute in his series Women of Algiers, of which he said, "When Matisse died, he left his odalisques to me as a legacy." Matisse Picasso presents the artists' oeuvres in groupings that reveal the affinities but also the extreme contrasts of their artistic visions. Published to accompany the landmark exhibition, a joint effort of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Tate Modern, London; the Réunion des musées nationaux/Musée Picasso and the Musée national d'art moderne/Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Matisse Picasso is the first major examination of the fascinating relationships between their art, their careers, and their lives. Thirty-four essays, each by a member of the exhibition's curatorial team, focus on a particular moment in the artists' evolving relationship. The authors present in-depth analyses of specific aspects of the unique artistic dialogue between Matisse and Picasso as reflected in selected juxtapositions of each artist's works. These texts are accompanied by an introductory history, commentary on the public perception of important artistic relationships, and an extensive chronology.

Picasso sees everything. --Henri Matisse

By Anne Baldassari, Elizabeth Cowling, John Elderfield, John Golding, Isabelle Monod-Fontaine and Kirk Varnedoe.

Hardcover, 9.75 x 12.25 in., 368 pages, 220 color and 60 b&w ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent
This is an excellent book with great reproductions of artwork.It also compares the two artist's.This is a good book for any artist to have.
It arrived as described in a timely manner.

Blockbuster
A blockbuster exhibition and a blockbuster catalogue. This book is hugely informative, very well organized, chronologically, with a constant comparison of both masters. Every masterpiece by Picasso is followed by one by Matisse and vice-versa. It is a break-through study on the mutual influence of both artists, an attempt once tried by the critic Yves-Alain Bois with less success. This book is required material for any arts library. The authors are all authorities in this particular field and vouch for the quality of the accompanying text.

Whew!
Huge, very heavy book of almost 400 pages.Wonderful reproductions in color of their work, and, for the most part, easily understood prose.I think I learned a lot.I know I learned that I like Picasso better than Matisse, whom I found to be basically cold and severe, too intellectual in his art.How he was personally this book does not say.You do get a little more sense of Picasso than Matisse.The book focuses on how these two artists played off each other's work almost all their artistic lives.And as such, it definitely succeeds.It was actually printed in conjunction with a major exhibition of these two, in Paris, London, and New York.A must for all art lovers. ... Read more

Product Description
In the brilliant sun of Nice, Henri Matisse painted the brightest, boldest colors he could imagine. Joyfully he painted everywhere and everyone. Enchanted and with a light heart, he painted all the time. This lovely book introduces young readers to the beloved painter Henri Matisse. With delightful illustrations, Le Tord captures the vivid colors of Matisse, and her poetic words sing to the music of his pictures. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

a work of beauty
A Bird or two opens your heart, your eyes to the extraordinary colorful work of Matisse. With great insight to his work Bijou Le Tord lets us enter the world of grace of this wonderful, beloved French artist. A must in all libraries, homes, wherever art is loved!

A Bird or Two is strong
"I am strong because I do what is in my mind."

It will be a child's recitation of these words that will make parents proud of thepurchase of Bijou Le Tord's book, A Bird or Two.A Bird or Two, which is abiography of Heni Matisse, does not simply factualize the life of thefamous painter, instead it fleshes him out and gives him spirit, life, andstrength.As an introduction to the world of art, Le Tord's book isbrilliant.

The book itself is a piece of art, thus it reflects the workof it's hero, Matisse, in a way that facts cannot.In Le Tord's book therelies a well-defined tribute to the famous artist which even the youngestchild can grasp and cherish.

Educational and Fun!
After attending a Matisse exhibition I was eager to pass on my love for his paintings to my young nephews. This book is so effective in teaching them about the artist that even I learned a coupleof things. So,if you'relooking for a fun way to introduce young kids to art this book is a goodtool. This book will give kids a friendly overview of who Matisse was andwhat motivated him to paint. It'll also show them "kid versions"of his most famous paintings. It's such a fun book that Irecommend it foradults as well ... Read more

Product Description
Here in the latest addition to our contemporary art board-book series, Henri Matisse's exuberant cut-paper art leaps off the page, accompanied by simple, lyrical text sure to delight the very young. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Perfect to introduce art
My 1-year-old has just started to adore this book. He gets it off the shelf, points to it and dances. He loves the pictures and is completely at home with the abstract representations, pointing to people and birds in the paintings. I am thrilled to see him responding to art in this way, and i think books like this are helpful in introducing different artistic styles from an early age, as well as being fun and engaging in their own right.

Wonderful book!
This book is by far my 2-year-old son's favorite book. He has it memorized. Each page has a beautiful Matisse painting, along with a sentence expressing the movement evident in the painting in a way that is relevant to a preschooler (ex. "I rumble tumble with a friend. I run, I leap, high in the air.") My children perform kinetic actions with each page. We all love this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

instructive review of decorative Matisse phase in Nice
Given the current Chicago exhibition examining Matisse's output between 1913-17 I thought it would be worth looking at this catalogue that documents his artistic output in Nice from 1916-30. This is a catalog of an exhibition held in the National Gallery Washington in 1986. Matisse lived in various Nice hotels (the Mediterranee was a favorite) and apartments during this period. In 1930 he left on his yearlong journey to the United states and Tahiti. In 1931 he began work on the great Barnes "La Danse".

The introductory essay talks of the influence of the local geography and light of Nice as well as the conceptual closeness to North Africa. There are useful articles about his Nice period and concerning collectors of his works during the 1920's.

There are 171 generously sized and well reproduced illustrations of the paintings featured in this exhibition. These are mainly female portraits, often featuring the artist's favored internal view looking out through a window or door. There are a series of attractive Odalisque paintings executed in the mid twenties. Additionally there a number of still lifes and landscapes to be seen. Typically for Matisse creations of this period, the works are very colorful and easy on the eye.

This catalogue gives a well illustrated coverage of Matisse's output during his earlier years in Nice. ... Read more

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99 illus., 85 in full color. 9 3/8 x 12.Amazon.com Review
Let this handsome volume introduce you to the great Frenchpainter Henri Matisse through a brief but informative biography andmore than 80 full-color reproductions. Included are works from morethan five decades in various styles- -early still lifes, Mediterraneanallegories, vivid dance images, and the collages that so clearly say"Matisse." One of his last, most ambitious endeavors is astained glass for a chapel at Vence in the south of France--one of themost acclaimed ensembles of church decoration of the 20th century. ... Read more

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The colorful, painterly, uplifting, and often joyous works of Henri Matisse are critical in the history of modern art. Throughout his many years as a painter, the celebrated artist kept returning to one particular subject—the windowed interior. Henri Matisse: Rooms with a View explores in depth, for the first time, the full significance of the window in Matisse’s thinking about interior and exterior space.

Matisse studied and rearranged his rooms constantly; when he lived in hotels and small apartments his living quarters usually doubled as his studio. In a continuous engagement with these spaces he produced not only singular masterpieces but also developed a theme as rich as the traditional landscape or portrait. In each new phase of his art and with every change of residence, Matisse reinvented the theme of the window.

Distinguished art historian Shirley Neilsen Blum analyzes more than fifty paintings, starting with the early Studio Under the Eves (1903), a traditional darkened room with a small brilliant window, through Harmony in Red (1908), with its startling use of color, pattern, and line, to the more abstract work created during World War I such as The Piano Lesson (1916). After the war Matisse moved to Nice. Tall French windows that open upon a balcony and overlook the Mediterranean define many of the paintings from these years. By the late 1940s the window is so bound to the structure of the flattened space that it is barely differentiated from a painting or piece of tapestry hanging on the wall. The luxuriously illustrated volume culminates in one of Matisse’s greatest and most original works—the Chapel of the Rosary (1947–51) at Vence—where, instead of imitating light and color in paint, he manipulated actual light through the colored glass of the windows.

This insightful volume reveals not only the key role of the windowed interior in Matisse’s oeuvre but also presents an overview of the artist’s remarkable and varied career, and shows how his work paved the way for some of the most radical abstract painting of the twentieth century. ... Read more