Henri Matisse | Canal du Midi, 1898

Canal du Midi belongs to a series of pictures painted by Henri Matisse near Toulouse during the winter of 1898-1899. Matisse, who left Moreau's studio in the autumn of 1897, married Amélie Parayre in January of the following year. After a brief honeymoon in London, the couple sojourned for six months in Ajaccio, Corsica.

Then, in August 1898, Matisse and his wife travelled to Toulouse, and stayed for six months with Amélie's parents.

This was the first time Matisse visited the South and he always remembered it as his first encounter with light and colour. Many of the landscapes he painted during that period, including the one we are commenting on, were probably executed outdoors, directly from the model. Yet the colour in them is not naturalistic.

Wislawa Szymborska | Love at First Sight / Amore a prima vista

They’re both convinced

that a sudden passion joined them.

Such certainty is beautiful,

but uncertainty is more beautiful still.

Since they’d never met before, they’re sure

that there’d been nothing between them.

But what’s the word from the streets, staircases, hallways -

perhaps they’ve passed by each other a million times?

Ron Hicks | Tell me more

Wassily Kandinsky | IV - La Piramide

Lo spirituale nell'arte, 1910

Così, lentamente molte arti si avviano a dire quello che hanno da dire, con i loro mezzi specifici.

E nonostante questa separazione, o grazie ad essa, le arti non sono state mai tanto unite come in quest'ultima fase della svolta spirituale.

In tutte si avverte la tendenza all'antinaturalismo, all'astrazione e all'interiorità. Consciamente o inconsciamente ubbidiscono al detto di Socrate: "Conosci te stesso!". Consciamente o inconsciamente, gli artisti si occupano sempre più del loro materiale, lo saggiano, pesano sulla bilancia spirituale il valore interiore degli elementi creativi.

Wassily Kandinsky | Unstable Compensation, 1930

Giacomo Leopardi | Calm after the storm / La quiete dopo la tempesta, 1829

The storm hath passed;

I hear the birds rejoice; the hen,

Returned into the road again,

Her cheerful notes repeats. The sky serene

Is, in the west, upon the mountain seen:

The country smiles; bright runs the silver stream.

Giovanni Segantini | Dopo il temporale / After the thunderstorm

Jane DeDecker, 1961 | Figurative sculptor

Jane DeDecker has been sculpting the human figure for over thirty-five years. She seeks to capture moments that reveal truths about the human condition, that, when stripped down to their essence, are understood intrinsically.

As a figurative sculptor, she communicates emotional experience through lyrical compositions that move the viewer.

DeDecker’s sculptures stop life in mid-sentence - somewhere between inhaling and exhaling - and gives it form. She tells a story through the simple moments that imprint our lives and define us.