Books, Arts & Manners: Chromatic Sensualist

Matisse: The Man and His Art, 1869- 1918, by Jack Flam (Cornell, 528 pp., $75)

Flam’s book (despite its subtitle) is not a life of Matisse, but a beautifully illustrated study of the period in which he produced his greatest works, with bits of biographical information thrown in. Born in dreary Picardy, the submissive son of a prosperous grain and hardware merchant, Matisse passed his law exams in Paris but never visited the Louvre. Attacks of appendicitis enabled him to escape both military service and the law office, and to study painting with Gustave Moreau for five years while his disapproving father supported him.

About the Author

Jeffrey Meyers

Mr. Meyers is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of John Huston: Courage and Art.

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Matisse: The Man and His Art, 1869- 1918, by Jack Flam (Cornell, 528 pp., $75)

Flam’s book (despite its subtitle) is not a life of Matisse, but a beautifully illustrated study of the period in which he produced his greatest works, with bits of biographical information thrown in. Born in dreary Picardy, the submissive son of a prosperous grain and hardware merchant, Matisse passed his law exams in Paris but never visited the Louvre. Attacks of appendicitis enabled him to escape both military service and the law office, and to study painting with Gustave Moreau for five years while his disapproving father supported him.