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Matisse: Father & SonEditions
ReviewPierre Matisse has a double claim on posterity. For almost 60 years, and especially at a time in the 40's and 50's when American artists were redefining the future of art, he pioneered the work of European artists - and in the case of some of them, including Balthus and Giacometti, he helped to make secure their international reputations. He was also the younger son of Henri Matisse, one of the greatest and best loved painters of all time, and - in a correspondence spanning 30 years - his father's closest, and sometimes his only, confidant. John Russell, one of the 20th century's leading art observers, critic for both the London and New York Times, has had access to thousands of letters from the archive of Pierre Matisse. Particularly at the end of the artist's life, when the entire Matisse family was in turmoil and in spite of the defection of the long-suffering Mme Matisse, son was able to counsel father, especially with regard to 'Madame Lydia' which almost certainly contributed to the great bonus of the last flowering of his talent, with the late 'découpages'. If anything, the other 'half' of the book is even more compelling, and in the nurturing of his favourite artists he showed himself a tenacious friend and champion, as well as shrewd critic and inspired dealer. - review by Stewart Grimshaw |
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