Page:The Dial (Volume 73).djvu/70

38 day and in all moods, a picture must call forth in the mind some half-memory of a disorder which has been rectified and made contenting. The spectator, perhaps even unknown to himself, is disturbed by disorder. In the disorder of the usual things about us Matisse has always hunted for a pure instrument; he has spoken directly and with freedom; and it is just this rectification of the conventional which gives him his unusual capacity for placing his spectator directly in touch with some freshness of expression. "The artist must make the elements of a picture large and clear, so as to get down three or four accurate contrasts; the further movement of colour plays to and fro among these points. Painting is nothing but the observance of the relation which one colour bears to another; you must see things as an ensemble. Nature appears to me in just that way. This is true even of Corot, although in his case it must be admitted that he paints each object in its local colour." Matisse is said to have worked with gradations, in that he develops his colours in a definite and deliberate direction and in that he was associated with the scientific studies of Chevreul, according to which colours can strengthen or weaken one another reciprocally provided that they are close enough together to make their influence felt. Matisse also subjects his drawing to this principle. But his drawing is likewise linked up with the knowledge that a curved line seems more beautifully curved or oval if it is brought into contrast with a straight line or an angle. I recall that other artists have their working principles as well; it was Cézanne's theory that blue could be made richer with yellow, a thing which, owing to its subtlety, can be accomplished only with great skill; while the Neo-Impressionists would surround a colour with its complement and join this with closely associated colours. Their pictures are full of such technical points. Matisse's work was always based on the greatest possible interval, acquired either through the opposition of black and white by which he got the effect of light, through juxtaposition instead of an actual application of light, or through the opposition of pure colours. He said to me once when standing before one of my own works, "In handling light use neighbouring tones which cause no break in the continuity and by which fulness can be retained. If you wish you can paint the shadows with contrasts, but never put contrasting colours on a curved surface which you want to preserve as a unit. Forms can be brought out by the use of deeper colours,