Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

From this evening on, Matisse will loom large in our lives as a result of not only this exhibition but also seminars and lectures in which we will be offered a lavish diet of what can best be described as serious Matisserie by savants from all over the world, intent upon illuminating all aspects of Matisse's creative genius. In preparation for this intellectual onslaught, I have been doing some background reading, during the course of which I came across a nice example of unserious Matisserie. This shows a very human side of Matisse, while at the same time indicating that his highly civilised appreciation of good food and interesting company could sometimes be taken the wrong way. It comes from The Autobiography of Alice B. Tok/as by Gertrude Stein-in itself a contradiction in terms, and concerns Miss Stein's French cook, Helo·ise. Helo"ise had her opinions; she did not. for instance, like Matisse. She said a Frenchman should not stay unexpectedly to a meal, particularly if he asked the servant beforehand what there was for dinner. She said foreigners had a perfect right to do these things, but not a Frenchman, and Matisse had once done it. So, when Miss Stein said to her, 'Monsieur Matisse is staying for dinner this evening', she would say, 'In that case Iwill not make an omelette but fry the eggs. It takes the same number of eggs and the same amount of butter, but it shows less respect. and he will understand'. So, ladies and gentlemen, the next time you are offered a dish of fried eggs instead of the omelette you might have expected, ask yourself what you could have done to deserve such treatment and, more importantly, think of Monsieur Matisse. I am sure that Monsieur Viatte will give you other, and much more cogent, reasons for thinking of Matisse, and I now have much pleasure in asking him to address us and open the exhibition. Ladies and gentlemen, Monsieur Viatte. 98