Know that lately,I am giving myselfto sleep as I oncegave myself in love,my body flung eagerlyinto bed; limbs limp and heavywith pleasure; the bedclotheson waking arranged exactlyas I entered them.I am in love nowwith rest, with releasefrom the tireless ego—
Volume 35, Number 4
Cover art by Margaret Withers
A Snail's Pace | Corinne Purtill
In January 1941, after a lifetime of abdominal pains, Henri Matisse readied himself for an operation to remove fourteen inches of his ruined colon. Prudently, given the risks of radical surgery in prewar France, he also prepared to die. Amid the letters and bequests, he expressed to his doctors a wish for three more years of life—the time needed, he believed, “to bring my work to a conclusion.” [Read more]
