‘I want to reach that state’ by Henri Matisse

Single page broadsheet written out in Chinese ink on handmade paper with gouache illustration. Completed June 2020

This extract is taken from ‘Notes of a painter’, written by Henri Matisse in 1908. Later on in the essay he goes on to describe how he wants his painting to be ‘like a comfortable armchair’, which has perhaps resulted in some damage to his reputation and led to him being described as a ‘mere colourist’.

However, it was written at a time when his paintings were considered by some to be deliberately provoking and should therefore be read as an attempt to explain the deeper motivations behind his work.

He was notoriously obsessive about re-working his paintings, causing both himself and his family some distress in the process. But I think it is revealing that the initial inspiration for his work should emerge out of a sense of nervous excitement, and that he should feel the need then to go beyond that initial sensation to the deeper state of mind that lay behind it.

I think it is this emphasis on that interior motivation that sets Matisse apart from so many of his contemporaries, and spurred him on to the achievements of a lifetime.

Ironically, of course, I made this piece in a single sitting and with no effort to re-work - but then I am not Matisse!