Matisse - Tériade, Correspondance 1930-1954

In each of their letters, the artist and publisher share their thoughts on current events and the art world. The projects that brought them together occupy a central place in their exchanges, providing essential insight.

Matisse wrote prolifically throughout his life. Alongside his personal notes and texts intended for publication, he maintained a wide-ranging correspondence covering family, friends, and professional matters. Among the leading figures in art publishing with whom the artist collaborated—Albert Skira, Christian Zervos, and Aimé Maeght—Tériade was undoubtedly the one with whom he was closest. Tériade played a decisive role, particularly in the invention of cut-out gouache, which marked the last ten years of the artist's career.

Their correspondence began in earnest in 1937, when Tériade commissioned Matisse to create a work for the cover of the first issue of Verve. This episode gave rise to a rich correspondence that reveals the inspiring relationship between an artist and his publisher during the darkest hours of the 20th century.

Covering the period from 1937 to 1954, these exchanges set the tone for an entire era and provide an essential contextual background for understanding Matisse's work. Becoming a spectator of the artist's creative process, the reader discovers, through the development of the issues of Verve devoted to him, how a visit to a studio can give rise to an editorial project, and observes how ideas are carried over from one work to another.

This correspondence, comprising 183 documents of varying lengths—139 written by Matisse and 38 by Tériade—but of equal consistency, immerses the reader in the development of the issues of Verve devoted to the artist. As a spectator of the creative process at work, the reader discovers how a visit to the studio can give rise to an editorial project and observes how ideas are carried over from one work to another. These exchanges are accompanied by an illuminating paratext and some fifty reproductions of the artist's works.