Alexandre Jardin says of him "His lascivious painting is certainly in good humour, but it breathes strictness. Living with a canvas by Massis is like living in the world of a sensualist. (...) In short, if you are angry with life, turn your back on him. If you are talented enough to be happy, place his canvases beside your windows; they open out onto a world of voluptuousness. They manage to convince us that it is possible to be a great painter and happy (...)".
Philippe Massis can indeed be described as an unconditional optimist, in love with women and life, a state of mind that is present in many of his canvases, full of sensuality and colour. "He murmurs with the tip of his paintbrush that women remain his sole horizon and that seeking pleasure is his axiom”.
Generous feminine curves are often present, treated in soft atmospheres suffused with blues, or on the contrary, highly contrasted, bright with dark red, intense black or radiant ochre.
However, his work - where the discreet influence of Matisse rubs shoulders with that of Klimt, Masson or Schiele - also reflects a number of questions: under the apparent frivolity, perhaps you can detect a world that is more complex than it first seems...