“A man who makes pictures like the one we were looking at is an unhappy creature, tormented day and night. He relieves himself of his passion in his pictures, but also in spite of himself on the people round him. That is what normal people never understand. They want to enjoy the artists’ products–as one might enjoy cows’ milk–but they can’t put up with the inconvenience, the mud and the flies.”

Henri Matisse, c. 1941 (quoted in Hilary Spurling, Matisse the Master)

“A man who makes pictures like the one we were looking at is an unhappy creature, tormented day and night. He relieves himself of his passion in his pictures, but also in spite of himself on the people round him. That is what normal people never understand. They want to enjoy the artists’ products–as one might enjoy cows’ milk–but they can’t put up with the inconvenience, the mud and the flies.”

Henri Matisse, c. 1941 (quoted in Hilary Spurling, Matisse the Master)