"What I dream is an art of equilibrium, purity and tranquility, without disquieting or disturbing subjects, which could be for the mental worker, the business man, and the man of letters too, for example, a mental refreshment and relaxation, something analogous to a good easy chair in which one rests from his physical fatigue."

--Henri Matisse          

Matisse also said, expressing his life-affirming values:
"'what interests me most,' the artist stated, 'is not still-lifes, or landscapes, but the human form. It is here that I can best express the almost religious feeling that I have about life." (_Matisse_, Jean Guichard-Meili, (Praeger, 1967), page 184)