Matisse's Beautiful Obsession

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

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La Blouse Roumaine 1940 Henri Matisse

Many years ago, Ann and I studied artists’ films and animation on our own to learn more about those subjects. We were able to borrow a film projector from our local library in Garrison, New York, and began working our way through the New York state library system’s vast collections.

At that moment, we had no television set. We would order four or five films at a time to watch on our living room wall. The most memorable film was an old black and white documentary about Matisse, probably shot in 1940 when Matisse was working at his studio in Nice. This is the famous studio where he created all those red interiors. At one point in the film, there was a step-by-step set of still images of the evolution of his painting, The Romanian Blouse. It was a revelation to me. Matisse was an avid draftsman and loved to draw constantly, so I assumed that he generally worked out his painting compositions pretty thor…