him to a studio where the walls were hung with pictures by Picasso—who was already known to me through Uhde—by Cézanne, Renoir, Valloton . . . and there was also the Lady With a Fan. It was a blow to me; how could a man collect such pictures! And pay out good money for them! For the first time, I awoke. I spent so much time on the one picture that it attracted attention; as a result I was introduced to the painter: he was Matisse. He made a great impression on me, and there began a friendship of long standing.
At this time I was not doing much painting, but I visited the galleries often and drew night-pieces. What I saw nearly overwhelmed me, plunging me into discouragement rather than inciting my productivity. The collector whom I mentioned previously was named Stein. At that time his brother had begun collecting pictures by Matisse almost exclusively. His gifted wife was herself a painter, and in her Matisse found a really remarkable relief from the trials and humours of his art. I was frequently present at these conversations, visited Matisse at his studio, solicited admirers for his work, but had never had the courage to appear with any of my own things. Consequently they tried a little coup d’état. Early one morning Stein knocked at the door of my studio, which likewise served as my residence. In my smock, fully disarmed, I had to admit Stein, and without wasting many words he took my drawings from the wall and showed them later to his wife and to Matisse. Matisse, I learned, examined them for a long while without being able to note a single element of beauty, but he did find a certain strength in them and numbered them in the order of his preference. He asked that I be told of his interest and observed that he found my work somewhat cramped, that he believed he could help me to a greater freedom and laisser-faire. Then Mme Stein invited me to work with her. This was the beginning of a plan to bring together several artists who had already taken their work to Matisse, and open a studio. Among the Germans, I found only Moll and his wife. At this period I was on quite distant terms with the Dome, in fact I was even the subject of philippics. But when the studio had become well known the Dome crowd renewed its alliances, and some of them even came to the classes.
Students who visited the studio with the idea that they would learn to turn out Matisses or acquire a ferociously ultra-modern art
