The Prompt A Day Quote for today caught my eye:
There are always flowers for those who want to see them. — Henri Matisse
I prepare the prompts a year at a time so when they appear in my inbox they are usually just as fresh for me as those who subscribe to my email list. I decided to learn a bit more about what seems a rather obvious fact.
Rarely, if ever, can I remember seeing an ugly flower. There is a beauty intrinsic in flowers that’s universal. Their beauty makes them popular not only for gardens but as gifts and use in art. So, yes, it’s pretty obvious there are always flowers for those who want to see them.
My mind went to, ‘who wouldn’t want to see flowers?’. Someone going through a dark time would be the most likely possibility. Is that what sparked Matisse to make a statement like that?
Henri Matisse was a French artist, sculptor and draftsman. He’s best known for his paintings. He was born in 1869 and died in 1954. He’s been suggested by many as being on a par with the likes of Picasso and Duchamp in defining many of the artistic developments of the early 20th century. His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing has given him considerable recognition in the art world.
The original quote came from his book “Jazz” published in 1947 and written in French. The book was a limited edition containing images of many of the colourful graphic paper cut collages he started creating following surgery in 1941.
After the surgery he was confined to a wheelchair, his ‘gouaches decoupes’ were what he called painting with scissors.
The original quote was:
Heureux ceux qui chantent de tout leur cœur, dans la droiture de leur cœur.
Trouver la joie dans le ciel, dans les arbres, dan les fleurs. Il y a des fleurs partout pour qui veut bien les voir.
An early translation into English was:
Happy are those who sing with all their heart, from the bottoms of their hearts.
To find joy in the sky, the trees, the flowers. There are always flowers for those who want to see them.
A translation for an article in 1995 produced:
Happy are those who sing with all their heart, in the forthrightness of their heart.
Find joy in the sky, in the trees, in the flowers. There are flowers everywhere for those who want to see them.
Curious what Google Translate would produce, I used it today::
Happy are those who sing with all their hearts, in the righteousness of their hearts.
Find joy in the sky, in the trees, in the flowers. There are flowers everywhere for whoever wants to see them.
Regardless of which is the correct translation, the quote has found its way onto many images of floral arrangements over the years.
At first glance the quote seems to be popular because it promotes the beauty of flowers, even every day, commonly seen flowers. The quote also demonstrates that even the most common of sights, sounds and smells around us has beauty when we choose to see it.
The other cliche, ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, is another expression of seeing the beauty in the world. Right now as the latest variant spreads like wildfire upending many people’s plans for the holiday, we need to keep in mind, no matter how much uproar we experience in life — there is still beauty to be found.
As I was writing this post today I glanced up from my keyboard and noticed this on my stairs:
That black ‘object’ is Tramp using one of the railing posts as a pillow as she slept on the stairs.
I find it interesting the difference between my two cats and their preferences. Tramp tends to prefer to sleep on the stairs or window sills. Hobo prefers to curl up right beside me or on a chair near a heater.
There is beauty in those little bodies and how they share the space with me.
