Precision is not reality.

Matisse’s remark is commonly read as a warning against confusing exactness of description with truth. In art, “precision” can mean meticulous rendering, correct proportions, or faithful detail; “reality,” by contrast, includes perception, emotion, and the lived experience an artwork can convey. The line aligns with modernist and especially Fauvist priorities: color, rhythm, and expressive simplification may communicate a deeper reality than photographic accuracy. It also gestures toward a broader epistemic point—measurements and exact formulations can be useful, but they do not exhaust what is real, particularly in human experience and aesthetic judgment.