Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso were not only great masters of 20th century art, but also close friends and, furthermore, competitors. A competition that would eventually benefit all : the two artists tried to emulate and surpass one another, creating several works, some of them definite masterpieces ; the public and critics thus had the opportunity of discovering new works ; art historians would later have a great subject for study.
Matisse was the older, more "traditional" one, while Picasso, who deeply admired elder painter, tried to learn and emulate the basics, while searching for his own artistic identity. He was an young artist, he was a strong voice and wanted to prove all of that. And the strange thing is that in 1908 the two produced two portraits, two selfportraits, in which they were represented in the Italian Middle Age fashion, trying to copy and imitate each other. Little known works, these are representative for their relationship and ideals. It wasn’t long before they even began exchanging works, and Matisse was one of the recipients of one of Picasso's first works in a surrealist manner.
Besides this artistic competition, Matisse and Picasso were surprisingly close, even if each of them had a strong and often difficult personality. Matisse had been fascinated by Post-Impressionist forms and themes, being one of the first painters to create the style, while Picasso was already marked and obsessed by the strange shapes of Cubism. And the two actually influenced eachother, and a good eye can find in the works of Matisse key "Picasso-like" elements. The opposite is also true. And in the end it was the language of modern art that gained a lot.
It was like a game, in the end. When Picasso presented the famous composition "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", Matisse "replied" with "Three Bathers with a Turtle", which was surprisingly similar in style and theme, yet it had the definitive marks of Matisse. Picasso used a basket full of fruits, Matisse preffered to use the turtle as a seconday, yet important element.
What they surely had in common, for all of their lives and friendship, was the need, the obsessive desire to forever change the world of art, by breaking it's taboos and regulations, painting strange and shocking themes and subjects in a style which was just as unusual. Great masters of painting, they also managed to remain good friends, not like Gauguin and Van Gogh, to give just one tragic example of an artistic friendship that had gone really bad.
September 2008
