Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: the Conquest of Colour: 1909-1954 » (Reprint)

Hilary Spurling has been a theater critic and literary editor for The Spectator, is now a book reviewer for The Daily Telegraph, and has written biographies of Ivy Compton-Burnett and Paul Scott. She is presently at work on Volume Two of The Unknown Matisse.

"Hilary Spurling, most accomplished of biographers, sheds an entirely new light on the humiliations and failures that Henri Matisse had to overcome in order to develop into the greatest French painter of the century. Her account of Matisse's early years is as riveting as a novel by Zola."—John Richardson, author of A Life of Picasso

Publishers Weekly

The first volume of Spurling's magisterial biography, The Unknown Matisse, covered his evolution into a painter. This second volume opens with his adjusting to the status-albeit controversial-of master. At 40, Matisse found himself with both the freedom to paint and the burden of a reputation that drew enemies, disciples and skeptics into his working life. This shift from obscurity to notoriety had less impact on Matisse's work than on his personal relationships, especially his marriage to the single-minded Amelie, a bond that became saturated, for better and worse, with his achievements. Matisse's other relationships-with his daughter, Marguerite, his son, Pierre, his model and factotum Lydia Dylectorskaya and his patron Etta Cone among others-were likewise compounded of dedication and turmoil. The work, meanwhile, took its own course, whether mutating through a single epic piece or proliferating in new media, through two world wars and an absolute transformation in the tenets of and expectations for art. Spurling's chief source is a huge but largely untapped collection of correspondence, on which she draws very deftly to convey the mood and tone of various sojourns in Paris, Nice, Tangiers, Tahiti and elsewhere. In addition to 24 pages of color plates, the book is peppered with b&w photographs, portraits and sketches. Spurling's rich, flexible style is well attuned to the rigors and flights of Matisse's creative life. (Sept.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.