The Unknown Matisse 1869-1908 - Softcover

Spurling, Hilary

4.22

599 ratings by Goodreads

9780140176049: The Unknown Matisse 1869-1908

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140176047 ISBN 13: 9780140176049

Publisher: Penguin, 2000

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Astonishing and essential, the biography that reclaimed Henri Matisse from history's slanders and restored his place in the canon of the 20th century's greatest artists

Before acclaimed biographer Hilary Spurling turned her attention to Henri Mattise, precious few facts were known about his life - and those few were distorted by inaccuracy, misunderstanding and glaring gaps. The Unknown Matisse investigates the secret life of The Wild Beast (as he was known), whose early paintings shocked and enraged his contemporaries. It tells the story of an innovative genius, born in war-torn, poverty-stricken Flanders who finally overcame hardship and disaster to fulfil Van Gogh's prophecy: 'The painter of the future will be such a colourist as has never yet been.'

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Paperback. Pub the Date: September. 2006 Pages: 512 in Publisher: Penguin Hilary Spurling's of The Unknown Matisse is a truly wonderful biography. Her prose is On muscular. rhythmical. carrying a lot of information. yet swift. enthralling. She has the done for Matisse what George Painter famously did for Proust in the 1950s. Besides being a first-rate scholar. she is an artist in narrative who has unearthed a fascinating story and told it illiantly. I rate this first volume with the first volume of Richard Holmes' Coleridge. Both books mark a climax in what has been called a golden age of modern biography which began with Richard Ellman's James Joyce. It is a terrific achievement '- Michael Holroyd.

Review:

"This book is extraordinary in revealing not only so much about Matisse that was previously unknown and unexpected, but also so much of real importance to an understanding of him and his art . . . Truly indispensable for anyone interested in Matisse, or in the milieu in which he lived and worked, or in the forces that shaped the art of this century--with a human dimension that is vividly drawn, utrterly compelling, and profoundly moving." --John Elderfield, curator of the 1992 Matisse retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art, New York "Hilary Spurling, most accomplished of biographers, sheds an entirely new light on the humiliations and failures that Henri Matisse had to overcome in order to develop into the greatest French painter of this century. Her account of Matisse's early years is as riveting as a novel by Zola." --John Richardson, author of A Life of Picasso "Besides being a first-rate scholar, Hilary Spurling is an artist in narrative who has unearthed a fascinating story and told it brilliantly. This is a terrific achievement." --Michael Holroyd, author Bernard Shaw "From the Hardcover edition."

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