Book review: Chatting with Henri Matisse, by Pierre Courthion

by Pierre Courthion
Paul Getty-Tate Modern Books
4 stars

This series of interviews with Henri Matisse was given in 1941 when he was recovering from surgery. But then the French artist had second thoughts and refused to allow their publication. Kept in the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, they have only now been published.

They give valuable insight into a major artist who was not only a painter but a sculptor, set designer and maker of memorable cut-paper collages. There was no artistic tradition in his prosperous, provincial family: they wanted him to be a lawyer. Matisse did not start painting until he was a young man and did not make any significant sales until he was almost 40 - a late starter but a strong finisher.

The interviews, conducted by Swiss art critic Pierre Courthion, evoke Parisian art schools at the beginning of the last century: we see Matisse sharpening his skills, going from one teacher to another, sketching passing cyclists to capture a sense of movement.

The interviews, which took place over nine days in restaurants and at Matisse's home, also provide vivid glimpses of the man - the freckles on the back of his hand, his insomnia, his travel to places such as Morocco and Tahiti, his revulsion from the smell of magnolias, his skill as a violinist, his rowing which won him a medal as the most assiduous in the Nice Rowing Club, and his habit of blowing clay pellets at people from behind shutters as relief from long hours of painting.

This provides a clue to Matisse the disciplined man who always sought control - and it was this desire for control, I suspect, which made him refuse permission for publication after publisher Albert Skira and critic Courthion had spent time and effort on the book.