Regarding Henri

Disturbing the eternal peace of a renowned painter, Andrew Leci sets down his glass of single malt for just long enough to enter into a different spirit world and gets personal (but not very close) with French artist, Henri Matisse.

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It’s not often you get to interview a person who’s been dead for nearly 66 years, but with the help of a medium (in truth he was more of an extra-large) I managed it. The theme of this issue is colour and Henri Matisse was renowned for his (sometimes unusual) use of it in his works. It’s important to get to the truth in this age of made-up stories and fake news, so I thought it prudent to go straight to the horse’s mouth and see if I could lead it to watercolour.

This is a rough transcript of the interview, with certain names withheld to protect the innocent, and some redactions… just to enhance the mystery.

Monsieur Matisse, thanks for agreeing to do the interview.

Henri Matisse (HM): Mais bien sur.

Ah, can we do it in English, please?

HM: Mais bien sur.

Good. Thanks. There are probably a few questions I’d like to ask – the concept of the afterlife, heaven and hell, that sort of thing – but that will have to wait for another day. Colour is the issue and many an art historian would point to you as one of its finest exponents. What was your inspiration?

HM: That’s easy. The price of paint. It was scandalous in my day and struggling artists had to use whatever they could get.

But your father was a wealthy merchant. Surely you could buy whatever you needed?