 "first rate!!" | 2007-09-19 |
| - Reviewed By tedarz |
| i loved this book - many new insights on matisse, the preeminent modern artist - very well researched and written - |
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 "The Unknown Matisse Revealed" | 2006-03-24 |
| - Reviewed By jamesctownsend |
I was impatiently awaiting the arrival of The Unknown Matisse and have not been disappointed. Hilary Spurling has truly written a superb book. For all those who are interested in the passing from the old school of art to the new concepts that gave way to modern art as we understand it, this book is for you. This book compares favorably with John Richardson's massive Picasso biography. The Unknown Matisse is a book I will keep going back to over the years.
James Townsend |
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| "Painful Beginnings" | 2006-01-27 |
| - Reviewed By happypatriotsandredsoxfan |
Matisse has always suffered from bad press. In his home town he was known as a triple failure: He couldn't take over the family seed store, he didn't make a career in law work and he threw away a chance to be a popular Salon artist. When people saw his latest paintings, they were often overwhelmed and unprepared for what they saw. Only a few visionary collectors and fellow artists understood his ground-breaking efforts. Picasso and those who supported Picasso felt that they had to run down Matisse to help their own cause . . . despite having "borrowed" heavily from Matisse. Later, most of Matisse's early masterpieces were hidden away in foreign, private collections while crowds jeered at his latest work.
The pain of all this was immense for Matisse. But his private sorrows were made even greater by the difficulties he had in developing his style, the birth of an illegitimate child whom he acknowledged who suffered from serious health problems, and the poverty that dogged him until he was around 40. What is less well known is that his in-laws became embroiled in one of the most celebrated scandals of all time in France, and Matisse found himself drawn into saving them.
Ms. Spurling does well in capturing the agony of being Matisse.
Her style though leaves something to be desired. Much of the information is superficial rather than revealing. In many cases, I felt like I was reading someone's unreflective daily diary. An exception was the material on the Humbert Scandal which Ms. Spurling has also written about quite well in La Grande Therese.
Ms. Spurling also could have included more about Matisse's art in this book.
But you will learn a lot about Matisse from this book that you won't find in most other sources.
I found the recent companion volume, Matisse the Master, to be much more rewarding. If you decide to read only one of the two books, I suggest that one. But you may decide to come back and read this one later, as I did. |
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| "Meet Matisse and Enter His Landscape for Reading Pleasure" | 2003-05-20 |
| - Reviewed By cmmills6 |
Henri Matisse (1869-1954) came from the somber northern region of France. The landscape of his youth was sketched in the somber colors of a provinical childhood. His family were seed merchants, sober and no nonsense in their approach to the realities of life. As Matisse grew his art expanded as he journeyed to Paris and to the South of France where he discovered the glories of coloration in his art. Matisse was the greatest of the Fauvist painters; the chief rival of Picasso and the grand old man of French painting.
In this first volume of her life of Matisse, Hilary Spurling the British born biographer draws France in the dawn of the 20th
century as we see Matisse struggle from poverty to stability. He was supported by a loving wife, good friends and a genius which
burst forth in all its glory as the great master continue to grow in his art.
The book is well illustrated, detailed in its description of Matisse's families, friends and opponents and well worth the reader's time.
With the current exhibition of Matisse-Picasso at the Metropolitan Museum of Mordern Art it is a pleasure to turn to Spurling's fine volume on Matisse to gain further insights into this giant of modern art. I recommend this book to everyone from art expert to the educated general reader seeking further insights into the evolution of a painter of genius. |
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| "Matisse's Colors" | 2001-11-29 |
| - Reviewed By schapmock |
| This is a genuinely inspiring biography, clearly written and deeply felt, powerfully communicating the revolutionary ideas of what painting could and should be that drove, and were driven by, Henri Matisse. Spurling vividly describes Matisse's struggles to balance his need to paint with financial reality and his society's disdain, often using the artist's own letters and recollections to depict his growing obsession with color and impatience with representation. Although I eagerly await the second volume, the true measure of Spurling's success is my anticipation in revisiting Matisse's paintings -- my enjoyment of his work has been increased immeasurably by reading this book. |
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 "Length is not necessarily Depth" | 2000-10-24 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| The narrative quality, even of a historical biography, is what keeps us reading. Only so many details can be digested before the reader bloats and stalls out in his efforts to follow the story the writer is trying to tell us. Ms. Spurling, from her style, apparently comes from an academic background, for this book is written seemingly in the fear some expert will come along and point out an omitted detail. To her credit, I found none. But neither did I find a tremendous critical faculty for weeding out the mundane from the significant. I am generally opposed to abridgements, but the tedium in this book would greatly benefit from that process. Much as I love Matisse, I am not that interested in what he had for breakfast. |
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| "Best art biography I've read" | 1999-12-23 |
| - Reviewed By modernartnotes |
| What a book. Spurling writes a complete biography of Matisse, looking not just at his art and artisitc influences but at his entire life. Unlike Richardson in his biographies of Picasso, Spurling never stoops to cheerleading or excuse-making. (However, seeing as Spurling's book was written years after Richardson's first two Picasso volumes, I can't help but wonder how the two writers portray the Steins so differently. I wish Spurling had been willing to take on Richardson a bit more directly.) Instead she explains and enlightens. The pace of the text is perfect. Of particular fascination is Spurling's accounts of Matisse's artistic breakthrough, starting in the Fauve summer in 1905. This book is exciting, breath-taking, insightful and I can't wait for volume two. Quite possibly the best book I read in 1999. |
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| "A wonderful artist biography" | |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| I read this book last year and have been anxiously awaiting the next volume. A marvelous examination of Matisse's start, the development of his passion for art and the complex personal life that made the journey extraordinary and, at the same time, ordinary. The images of his parents, their scandalous employers, his wife, his children, and his remarkable artistic peers remain very vivid for me, as each are really intriguing in and of themselves. Spurling is enormously engaging as a writer, and this book takes you to France at the turn of the 20th century and present time and place in a way that stays with the reader. It's a fantastic work. |
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