Pearls from artists* # 687

Barbara’s Studio

*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.

PC: Talking about sales, when it comes down to it, don’t you find that most of the time, the true art lovers, the disinterested amateurs, are the ones who can’t afford to buy?

HM: Yes, the man who buys, buys for speculative reasons, and after a year or two says to himself – what’s my painting worth? – he wants to cash in. But who knows whether a picture can be sold profitably at any given point? I have friends who begrudged me the fact that I persuaded them to buy a beautiful painting.

Henri Matisse in Chatting With Matisse: The Lost 1941 Interview, Henri Matisse with Pierre Courthion, edited by Serge Guilbault

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