Friendship between Matisse and Picasso
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| Matisse, Stil life with oranges, 1912 |
Both of them changed the history of Painting,
each one in their own way. They had two really different personalities, but at
the same time similar.
They met each other in 1905 at Stein’s house. By
that time, Matisse already had a family and had already shaken the Parisian
artistic panorama in the Salon d’Automne with his strident colors. Picasso
lived a bohemian and poor life, and was making himself a name in Paris with his
paintings of harlequines and saltimbanques and he still had not reached cubism. Matisse
was 12 years older.
It was a friendship in which affection, envy, formality,
respect, admiration, suspicion and competition were mixed.
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| Matisse, Green Stripe, 1905 |
Each one of them took different paths in art.
Matisse wanted to enhance the color with harmonic relations; Picasso wanted to
revitalize volume with the trick of bi-dimensionality in the canvas. If Matisse painted a green line dividing his face from his wife’s, Picasso would exploit the
borders of Kahnweiler or Vollard’s shapes. Picasso said that Matisse’s colors
were disturbing; Matisse admired Picasso’s radicalism and his imagination.
Matisse was the man of tidiness, reflection, self-improvement, and also someone
that wanted to find the inner coherence of Universe. Picasso, instead, wanted
to break this order; he was passionate, energetic and would get rid of all that
was unnecessary.
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| Matisse, Self-portrait with striped shirt, 1906 |
They were connected by their passion for
pigeons and primitive art. In fact, Matisse showed him an African head, which
was the starting point for the figures of “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” and
cubism. They shared their admiration for Cézanne, Manet (and his use of black),
Delacroix, Van Gogh and Ingres. They shared collectors, art dealers and
friends: enough reasons to avoid rivalry. They exchanged paintings as a sign of
affection, but also to discover each other’s tricks.[1]
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| Picasso, Self-portrait, 1907 |
They did not combat in the 2 Wars, but they
fought from their canvas in their own ways. Picasso, in Paris; Matisse, in
Southern France. During this period of time, they hardly knew of each other:
France was occupied, and fauvism and cubism were not liked by Nazis. In 1941,
Matisse was operated twice by a duodenal cancer, which weakened him harshly,
something that led him to stay in the South. Picasso visited him often: seeing
him made him happy. To him, friendship was something exclusive, and he would
not offend him for anything. Matisse would receive him in bed, as a patriarch,
and showed him his latest creations. If Picasso knew nothing of him, he would
wonder “What is Matisse doing right now?”, like he was facing a rival to
respect or an alter ego.
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| Picasso, Portrait of Vollard, 1910 |
He did not want to ruin this relationship for
anything in this world, however, in more than one occasion his bad temper
failed him. It’s said that once, Picasso, eating in a restaurant, found a hair
in his soup and commented that it looked like a drawing by Matisse. It seems
that this reached his friend’s ears, and as revenge, he gifted him a ritual
headdress of the New Hebrides (nowadays’ Vanuatu). Picasso thought it horrible
and an affront against his artistic tastes, but he could not refuse his gifts:
that would destroy their friendship. As excuse he said that it would not enter
in his car and that he would return to pick it up in another occasion. He tried
to let time pass so that Matisse would forget it, but each time they saw each
other, he’d insist one and another time. That was Matisse’s elegant revenge.
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| Picasso, Family of Saltimbanques, 1906 |
Picasso even got to say that if any of them
died, the other one would not talk about definite stuff with anybody else.
Matisse died in 1954 being 85 years old; Picasso outlived him for 19 years,
until 1973, being 92 years old.
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| Picasso, Winter Landscape, 1950 |
To him, the death of his friend was like a
treachery, he was now alone, not being able to talk about colors, shapes,
proportions… They were both two tireless searchers: they painted until the very
last day of their lives.
By the way: 3 years after Matisse’s death,
Picasso finally took the idol with him.
Fuentes: Gilot, F. Matisse und Picasso.
München, Knaur, 1995
Matisse, H. Escritos y consideraciones sobre el arte.
Barcelona, Paidós, 2010
[1] As an example: Picasso bought Matisse' "Stil life with Oranges"; for a while Matisse borrowed Picasso's "Winter Landscape" to analyze it.
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