The Unknown Matisse, Volume One: 1869-1908

Hilary Spurling

Editions

Review

Hilary Spurling's credentials - biographies of Ivy Compton-Burnett and Paul Scott, and her time as theatre critic and literary editor of  'The Spectator' - make her an unlikely biographer of one of the twentieth century's greatest and best-loved artists.

What emerges is a remarkable book.

From a war-torn, poverty stricken childhood in Flanders and through the art school days in Paris, Matisse's life is examined in detail as he struggles to redefine art on his own terms.

It was Van Gogh who prophesied that "the Painter of the future will be such a colourist as the world has never yet seen".

Spurling charts his progress, at times canvas by canvas, to reveal a portrait of a man as warm, humorous and generous in his private life as he was steadfast in his art.

Absolutely wonderful. - review by Stewart Grimshaw