This volume brings together the works of two great artists, whose canvases differ greatly in terms of formal expression, but whose ideas about painting were very similar.
The publication is part of the exhibition at the Vittoriano in Rome and draws together the works of two of the greatest artists of the twentieth century: Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse. The two artists were always in contact, exchanging ideas and opinions on a shared vision of art: painting that was not afraid of existing outside the great battles of the twentieth-century avant-garde, and which, rather than placing itself in the sphere of ideologically debating the representation of reality, sought meaning and purpose within the painting itself, seeing art not as imitation or interpretation of life, but as the depiction of emotion experienced by the artist before an aspect of life.
The publication centres on the many points of contact in the ethics and aesthetics of the two artists, confirming the similarities, and in a parallel way the differences, between the formal solutions they each adopted. There are more than 230 works, including oils, sculptures, watercolours, etchings, drawings and autobiographical documents, offering a broad and fascinating view into the works of the two artists. Frequent correspondence by Matisse to his friend began with the words, "Long live painting" - this is a symbolic motto encapsulating the main value on which both artists built their art and life. It is about an absolute and complete love, to which one dedicates a life; after all, as Bonnard wrote to Matisse, "Painting comes with the condition that you give yourself over to it completely. On this point I think we understand each other very well".