Matisse: Father & Son - Softcover

Too much of the time, we forget that art is about buying and selling as well as about creating. When Henri Matisse's son Pierre came to terms with the fact that he would never be more than a moderately gifted amateur as either painter or musician, he became a dealer, and his life-long correspondence with his famous father is a fascinating record of decades of taste-making and talent-spotting. John Russell has had full access to this correspondence, and his account of it, and the relationship of which it is the tangible record, is touching in its evocation of family warmth, and useful in what it tells us about the selling of contemporary art to America, which is where Pierre set up shop. As well as selling his father's pictures, he took up Giacometti and Miro and Balthus--later on he took on Tanguy and Dubuffet--and worked hard for them, not always receiving the gratitude that was his due. This is also the story of Henri Matisse's later years--the difficulties of the war and occupation and failing health and his endless pursuit of new ways to make images. This is an essential account of the making and selling of art. --Roz Kaveney