Henri Matisse Feelings Quotations

I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.

The residuum of another's expression can never be related to one's own feeling.

I have simply wished to assert the reasoned and independent feeling of my own individuality within a total knowledge of tradition.

I am unable to distinguish between the feeling I have for life and my way of expressing it.

The living model, the naked body of a woman, is the privileged seat of feeling, but also of questioning... The model must mark you, awaken in you an emotion which you seek in turn to express.

...for whether we want to or not, we belong to our time and we share in its opinions, its feelings, even its delusions.

My choice of colors does not rest on any scientific theory, it is based on observation, on feeling, on the experience of my sensibility.

It is through the human figure that I best succeed in expressing the nearly religious feeling that I have towards life.

I am unable to make any distinction between the feeling I get from life and the way I translate that feeling into painting.

Purer colors... have in themselves, independently of the objects they serve to express, a significant action on the feelings of those who look at them.

I never retouch a sketch: I take a canvas the same size, as I may change the composition somewhat. But I always strive to give the same feeling, while carrying it on further.