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SPURLING, HILARY: : MATISSE THE MASTER - A LIFE OF HENRI MATISSE: VOLUME TWO,1909 - 1954

LONDON.PENGUIN BOOKS,2006.

ISBN 0241133394.

UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st thus.Original and simultaneously published in UK and US in 2005 by Hamish Hamilton and Knopf respectively.This edn by Penguin,2006; so 1st edn thus.Complete number line 1.] FINE/FINE.Ink gift presentation inscrptn to ffe but no price-clip to dw/dj. Bright,crisp,clean,matt,wrap-around colour pictorial artwork portrait of Matisse,by Olga Meerson,illustrated dw/dj,with white lettering; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top+fore -edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight, clean,solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright, crisp,clean,sharp-cornered - except rear,lower corner minimally bumped,publisher's original plain khaki paper-covered boards with red paper-covered blind spine with bright,crisp,blocked gilt lettering and immaculate plain tan endpapers.UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn thus,vii -xxipp +3-512pp [paginated] includes illustrations list/table,author's preface,12 chapters,150+ b/w illustration reproductions throughout the text,24pp colour illus in 2 blocks of 8 and 4pp apiece,between pp136/7 and pp264/5 respectively,comprising 25 colour plates,a key to Notes,notes and an index.Plus [unpaginated] critics' praise with thumbnail b/w Matisse self-portrait to recto,half-title with b/w photograph to verso,title page,and contents list/table. 'If my story were ever to be written down truthfully from start to finish,it would amaze everyone,' wrote Henri Matisse. It is hard to believe today that Matisse, whose exhibitions draw huge crowds world-wide,was once almost universally reviled and ridiculed.His response was neither to protest nor to retreat. He simply pushed on from one innovation to the next,and left the world to draw its own conclusions.Unfortunately,these were generally false aand often damaging.Throughout his life and afterwards,people fantasized about his models and circulated baseless fabrications about his private life. Fifty years after his death,'Matisse the Maste' shows us the painter as he saw himself.With unprecedented and unrestricted access to his voluminous family correspondence,and other new material in private archives,Hilary Spurling documents a lifetime of desperation and self-doubt,exacerbated by Matisse's attempts to counteract the violence and disruption of the twentieth century in paintings that seem now effortlessly serene,radiant and stable. Here for the first time is the truth about Matisse's models,especially two Russians: his pupil Olga Meerson (whose hitherto unknown portrait of Matisse lying on his studio couch is on the dust jacket) and the extraordinary Lydia Delectorskaya,who became his studio manager,secretary and companion in the last two decades of his life. But every woman who played an important part in Matisse's life was remarkable in her own right, not least his beloved daughter Marguerite,whose honesty and courage surmounted all ordeals, including interrogation and torture by the Gestapo in World War II. If you have ever wondered how anyone with such a tame,dull public image as Matisse could have painted such rich,powerful, mysteriously moving pictures,let alone produced the radical cut-paper and stained-glass inventions of his last years,here is the answer.They were made by the real Matisse, whose true story has been written down at last from start to finish by his first biographer,Hilary Spurling. Hilary Spurling is also the author of 'The Unknown Matisse: The Early Years, 1869-1908.' Please contact seller,because of the weight/ value of this item for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.

UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st thus.
Not SIGNED.

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