Study of a Tree, No. 19 by Henri Matisse, 1941
In a 1943 letter to the writer André Rouveyre on drawing trees, Henri Matisse outlined how he learned to draw with feeling rather than just observation. The letter begins with Matisse listing two ways of describing a tree:
by using the imitative drawing you learn in European art schools,
by using the impression suggested by the way you approach it and contemplate it.
Matisse continues:
Many times I have tried to draw trees and not succeeded. I started out by using imitation. No one ever encouraged me to go further down that route, because the result was always lifeless, and bore no relation to the feeling that had driven me to try and draw the tree. Then, when I only used my feelings and my emotions I was also so taken by the beauty of the trunk its power and its mystery, that I couldn’t get past the main branches.
Matisse then details how he was never satisfied with his drawings of trees, or that he was happy with the trunks but the branches and leaves were drawn as an afterthought, leading to an unsuccessful result. Then he writes:
Study of a Tree, No 3, 1941 by Henri Matisse.
So I had been constantly repulsed in my repeated attempts to study trees until a few months ago when, quite by chance, I took a pad of letter paper and tried to draw branches in leaf using the simplest means possible, and as the ink flowed from pen to paper, I saw the leaves take shape.
Using the simplest means possible, and not adding very many details such as veins, Matisse had found a way to draw trees that pleased him. This is decades into his career as an artist. Then he writes:
It’s rather like a juggler, who learns to juggle with two balls, and then moves up to 3, 4, 5, 6, and then adds a spoon, and his hat. You can’t work with nature until it has been filtered by your feelings.
This letter was republished in full in the wonderful book Matisse Cut-outs published by Taschen in 2014. It’s a large coffee table book with color and black and white reproductions throughout. It’s big, measuring 12 x 15 x 1.5 inches thick with 334 pages and weighs almost 8 pounds. In addition to letters and correspondence, it has sections on Matisse’s trip to Tahiti in the 1930s, studies for his mural The Dance, a section on his cutouts for Verve and Jazz, his Oceania cut outs, details on the planning and construction of the Rosary Chapel, and a final section on Matisse’s large gouache works. It’s truly a monumental publication that makes for an amazing coffee table book and presents Matisse’s work at a scale that really pops off the page.
Matisse Cut-outs
Taschen, cloth bound edition, 2014, 334 pages
Study of a Tree, No. 16 by Henri Matisse
