What I dream of is an art that is equilibrated, pure and calm, free of disturbing subject matter, an art that can be for any intellectual worker, for the business man or the writer, a means of soothing the soul, something like a comfortable armchair in which one can rest from physical fatigue.

Matisse expressed this ideal in the years just after the Fauvist breakthrough, when critics often attacked his bold color and simplified forms as abrasive or anarchic. In 1908 he set out his aesthetic program in an essay aimed at explaining what he sought in painting: not narrative drama or moral agitation, but balance, clarity, and repose. The remark comes from that moment of self-definition, as he tried to articulate a modern art that could still offer viewers a restorative experience—an antidote to the strain of contemporary life rather than another source of disturbance.

The quote frames art as a form of visual consolation. “Equilibrated, pure and calm” signals Matisse’s pursuit of compositional balance and harmonious color, where the painting’s internal order matters more than sensational subject matter. By imagining the viewer as an “intellectual worker” (including the businessman and writer), he rejects the idea that serious art must be difficult, shocking, or morally burdensome. The “comfortable armchair” metaphor makes aesthetic pleasure therapeutic: art should provide mental rest and renewal, offering a space of clarity and ease amid fatigue and modern pressures.

1) “What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter … something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.”
2) “I want an art of balance, purity, and serenity … a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair.”