My portrait

1908 Matisse was a portrait of his student Margaret minor paint. She remembered the detail of his plan: "We had the picture from Berlin received an image that Corinth had painted of me. When Matisse saw the photo, he found it did not like and said: This woman is not minor, as I see it. She is much younger. I'd like to try even once a portrait.

"Of course, the couple minor "very impressed with this thought. We talked about the price and 1,000 francs were quite high for us! There were then 800 gold marks. "

"If you do not like the picture, I keep it for yourself I want to paint it, "added Matisse then added. "Immediately he spoke of his intention to paint a portrait with a wax solution, and showed me a bottle containing a solution of wax with turpentine. This mixture he wanted to add the color instead of the usual Malmittels. He pointed to an older picture so painted, polished it with a woolen cloth, and thought it would get in a beautiful, silky-soft glow. "

Every day she went for three hours in his studio, "missed my own studies. I was not allowed to see on the screen, but I eagerly watched his brushes and palette and won a strong feeling for the logic of his work. If my white blouse was green, then purple was so moved that the change of local color to be. The black skirt was indeed black, but maybe green instead of ocher was mixed, and the hair color has been changed accordingly accordingly.

Each time the color should be changed, were washed off the surface thoroughly, so that the picture was painted in spite of great changes, which Matisse was important. After the tenth session, he sent me away and said he wanted to go to the Louvre. I could still take a look at the picture, and liked it more highly. When I came back the next time the picture was finished. It had been repainted without me.

When we saw the picture for the first time, we were quite disappointed. My feeling all previous correspondence was gone. Matisse himself admitted that he had a picture by Veronese in the Louvre so impressed and so complied with what he just wanted to say that he had tried to give my portrait of the same "grandeur" that he in the Veronese I felt. "

"The picture was ours, and we loved it more and more. It was until after the Second World War in our possession. It is one of the most beautiful-and most important paintings of Matisse. André Salmon, art critic, was then so impressed that he wrote: "I could kill the man who owns it, in order to call it my own."

(Unfortunately, the work fell into the chaos of the post-war Germany in foreign hands. The Molls wanted it to safety. They had lost too much. The image should be deposited in Switzerland. A stu-lerin of Moll, who flew over to Switzerland with her baby to Persia with her husband, took with it and sold it without approval. It appeared years later in the American art market, and came into the possession of the National Gallery in London.)

Had bought "While my picture was painted, hung behind me the big picture that Osthaus: In her autobiography she writes about Matisse. One afternoon, came the Russian collector Tschukin Morozov and Matisse. When they "à la Tortue Les Baigneuses" saw they were so thrilled be-that she wanted the picture to have it. But since it was already Osthaus, they proposed to make a copy of what Matisse turned down after some hesitation. Then they ordered two other large images in the same colors. "

The Molls paid for the portrait of one thousand francs. To order the Russian collector demanded Matisse of 20 000 francs. "Matisse is revealed to the occasion," said Margaret minor eye-wink.

By Order of the Russian collectors more money came into the house of the French. The material success also ensured his family to a different lifestyle. One incident from that time told Margaret Moll likes:

"Were these images delivered only once, Madame Matisse was able to make their hearts peaceful purchases for the household. Happily, she had returned home recently. She had bought bed sheets in the "Bon Marché". Matisse was the same day in another direction also been on the road. A beautiful Persian carpet had it done to him! The ornament is not wanted him out of mind. "Qu` il est beau! Qu `il est beau!" So it ceased until the next day Mrs. Matisse. But both - carpet and sheets - to create, that was impossible.

What was Madame Matisse left? She went to the "Bon Marché", brought back the sheets and pulled her prosaic money back. This could then in Paris. The carpet was bought immediately. Every night now sat in an armchair behind the champion, pondered the mild smoke at his cigar and was savoring the views of its beautiful carpet wander, whose colors and ornaments should give him as much stimulation ... "

Occasionally, the couple visited the Moll family Matisse. Once they were invited to dinner. "It was designed festive, our model acted as a servant, and for dessert champagne was pleasant chat when we came to talk about German Christmas traditions, and Matisse suggested that we should give to his children but the joy of getting to know a German Christmas . "

The Molls him fulfill his wish. She studied in Paris, where the fir-tree was unknown to baubles, tinsel and candle holders. After a long search they found Christmas decorations and even a "Christmas tree". And so they could make the Matisse family and their children with the "German Christmas a celebration. "For us alone we would not have happened to Paris."

In the summer of 1908, both returned to Germany, "but soon met Matisse in Heidelberg Purrmann and again ... We had no idea that we would spend the next Christmas with Matisse together again, this time in our home in Berlin," wrote Margaret. Friend Purrmann accompanied Matisse. In Cassirer's in Berlin for the first time, the images should be issued by the Frenchman who, the. So he had come to Berlin and was artist-in all learning "passed around".

His paintings attracted much attention, but also triggered stunned amazement, even bewilderment. Shortly before, Cassirer had shown in his gallery for the first time Cézanne. Here, too, negative skepticism had been registered. Even the progressive Parisian painters in Germany were largely unknown. Even friends of the couple believed minor, when they saw pictures of Matisse's apartment, "if it were an April Fools joke," said Margaret Moll. "So at that time seemed strange even to the experts these pictures!"

They had translated the "Notes d'un Painter" by Matisse and the German sculptor August Gaul between given that their work was, unfortunately, lie somewhere and forgot. "Maybe they still circulate in Berlin," quipped Margaret Moll later. Indeed, their translation from hand to hand.

Since the spring of 1908 was the twenty-three artist pregnant, expecting her first child.