Initially trained as a lawyer, Matisse developed an interest in art only at age twenty-one.

Curators Dita Amory and Alison Manges Nogueira discuss five portrait drawings from the exhibition Leonardo to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Robert Lehman Collection.

Met staff reflect on artworks that were made under extraordinary circumstances, from Henri Matisse's "Jazz" to an opera by Gertrude Stein.

"There are these gorgeous, sublime images, but there's also a sense of worry."

Throughout his long career, Henri Matisse (1869–1954) continually expanded the boundaries of his art. By repeating images in pairs, trios, and series, he conducted an ongoing dialogue with his earlier works in order to, as he put it, "push further and deeper into true painting." In this fresh approach to a much-studied artist, prominent scholars from the United States and Europe examine more than sixty works in concise chapters that focus on this aspect of Matisse's working process. From early pairs such as Young Sailor I and II (1906) and Le Leux I and II (1907–8) through a series of late studio scenes from Venice (1946–48), Matisse is shown revisiting a given theme with the aim of devising innovative, often radical, solutions to such problems as how to portray light, handle paint, select colors, and manipulate perspective. New technical studies of the early paired works and photographs documenting the evolution of his later paintings help to elucidate Matisse's complex evolution. In numerous excerpts from letters and interviews, he is revealed as an artist who regularly questioned himself and his methods, a man of powerful intellect who regarded each new painting as an adventure. A significant addition to art historical literature, Matisse: In Search of True Painting is a revelatory study of a seminal figure in twentieth-century modernism.

On a frigid day in December 1924, a young Frenchman—exactly as young as the century itself—stepped off a ship and onto a dock in New York City. Pierre Matisse aspired to establish himself as an art dealer in the United States. Although a son of the renowned painter Henri Matisse, he struggled at first and was often discouraged and homesick over the next seven years. When he opened his gallery on Fifty-seventh Street in November 1931, the city was in the throes of the Great Depression, and his success was by no means assured. For nearly sixty years, however, the Pierre Matisse Gallery prospered. It came to be recognized as an influential part of the modern art movement in America, benefiting many artists, collectors, and institutions, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the works discussed and illustrated in this book now reside. Having initially exhibited works by members of the School of Paris, including his father, Pierre Matisse found his true vocation in championing younger artists, among them Joan Miró, Balthus, Jean Dubuffet, and Alberto Giacometti. His embrace of innovative, original, and controversial art ensured the historical significance of his career. When Pierre Matisse died in 1989, his gallery ceased to exist. His widow, Maria-Gaetana ("Tana") Matisse, had been an active partner in running the business since 1974, and in 1995, she established the Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Foundation. Following Tana's death in 2001, the Foundation extended to the Metropolitan Museum the extraordinary gift of 148 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints from the couple's personal collection. In this volume, the authors Sabine Rewald and Magdalena Dabrowski describe and document the works in the collection and shed light on the personal histories of twentieth-century masters as reflected in excerpts from Pierre Matisse's voluminous correspondence and in rare photographs, many published here for the first time. This story of a singular man who stepped out of the shadow of his famous father and made a name for himself in the annals of art history will surely captivate anyone interested in the visual achievements of the twentieth century.