Notes d'un peintre

A short and dense text, A Painter's Notes was the first writing by Matisse about his art and sets the tone for later views that the artist was to express, especially from the 1930s onwards, to critics and art lovers. Published on 25 December 1908 in La Grande Revue, immediately translated into German and Russian and read by artists, it is republished here for the first time with the illustrations chosen by Matisse. A preface by Cécile Debray, curator of the Musée national d'art moderne, traces the cultural and artistic context of this essential text for the understanding of a major body of work in twentieth century art.