Henri Matisse, Luxe, Calme, et Volupté, 1904
The characteristic of modern art is to participate in our life. A painting in an interior spreads joy around it by the colors, which calm us. The colors obviously are not assembled haphazardly, but in an expressive way. A painting on a wall should be like a bouquet of flowers in an interior. These flowers are an expression, tender or lively. Or, the pleasure simply comes to us from a yellow or red surface, which accounts for the more tender expression of the flowers, like roses, violets, daisies, compared with the bright and purely decorative orange of marigolds.
- Henri Matisse
Made beautiful by time,
Would decorate our room;
The rarest flowers
Mingling their odors
With the vague fragrance of amber,
Rich ceilings,
Deep mirrors,
Eastern splendor,
Everything there would speak
- Baudelaire, in Luxe, calme, et volupté
