A SONG FOR YOUNG MATISSE
A young Matisse made a stop
On the tiny island of Belle Ile
To gaze at a single colour
A thick intense colour
That wore intense colours on top
And within each even more
You see
He’s never seen a colour be-fore
He’s never seen a colour be-fore
Oh but it’s never too late…
He gazed and gazed all day long
While John Russell’s beautiful wife
Made biscuits and coffee strong
Said Russell’s wife would you like
Some biscuits & coffee strong
Some biscuits & coffee strong
You see
He’s never seen a beauty be-fore
He’s never seen a beauty be-fore
Oh but it’s never too late…
On the tenth day Matisse left
The tiny island of Belle Ile
For by now he felt a bit unwell
Like a gust of air he left
Was it by now all too belle
To be bearable at all
You see
He couldn’t stand it any more more
He couldn’t stand it any more more…
Suggested chords: E – G / E – A – G / D – A
Matisse’s greatest contribution to art—his celebration of colour as an expressive force independent of a descriptive function—developed not from his formal training but from his personal life. The artist came from a drab city in the north, characterized by grey skies. His only exposure to colour and light came in the rich textiles produced in his region. A turning point in Matisse’s art came during his stays on Belle-Ile-en-Mer in Brittany during the summers of 1895–1897. Particularly important to Matisse was an Australian painter, John Peter Russell, who ran an art colony on the island that owed a great deal to the theories of van Gogh, his late friend and former classmate. Matisse credited Russell with introducing him to the Impressionists’ theories of light and colour, especially to the contributions of Monet.
from The New Criterion, January 1999.Review of The Unknown Matisse A Life of Henri Matisse: The Early Years, 1869-1909 by Hilary Spurling
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