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The Modernist Mission

DANCER IN REPOSE, Henri Matisse, 1942 © 2001 Succession H. Matisse, Paris/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
DANCER IN REPOSE, Henri Matisse, 1942
© 2001 Succession H. Matisse, Paris/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

THE ROCKING CHAIR, Pablo Picasso, 1943 © 2001 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
THE ROCKING CHAIR, Pablo Picasso, 1943
© 2001 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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KERA: How did Picasso and Matisse view themselves in relationship to the tradition they had inherited?

Rick Brettell: When Matisse decided to become an artist, you had to learn to be an artist in terms of a tradition that was hundreds of years old for the making of portable easel pictures, and thousands of years old for the making of beautiful objects. And the artist was taught to learn that whole tradition before being able to make an important contribution to it.

Matisse went through an extremely layered and complicated system of instruction which Picasso did only a little bit. Matisse saw himself as an heir to the great tradition of French painting. Picasso would have laughed at being included in that kind of tradition. It’s one of the differences between the two of them. Matisse actually had to break free from that, much more fully than Picasso did.