The Unknown Matisse: Man of the North 1869-1908 (v. 1)

'Hilary Spurling's "The Unknown Matisse" is a truly wonderful biography. Her prose is muscular, rhythmical, carrying a lot of information, yet swift, enthralling. She has done for Matisse what George Painter famously did for Proust in the 1950s. Besides being a first-rate scholar, she is an artist in narrative who has unearthed a fascinating story and told it brilliantly. I rate this first volume with the first volume of Richard Holmes' "Coleridge". Both books mark a climax in what has been called a golden age of modern biography which began with Richard Ellman's "James Joyce". It is a terrific achievement' - Michael Holroyd.