Essay on The Artwork of Henry Matisse

Impressionism is an artistic style of painting that originated in France in the 1870s. This style of painting attempts to capture an experience or emotion opposed depicting a scene accurately. Every impressionistic painter has a distinct method of rendering as well as their own distinct set of qualities that reflect the artist themselves. For instance, The Basket Chair by Berthe Morisot and The Orange Trees by Gustave Caillebotte are two impressionist works of art of oils on canvas that contrast in many ways. These two paintings will be compared side by side with an in depth approach comparing the artist’s personal status in society, modernism’s role in the piece, and the execution of composition.

In the paper I would like to focus on a painting that is almost 120 years old, however it appears provocative even today - in the world of contemporary art, where there seems to be no room left for astonishment. What I find so special about this beautiful painting is the technique and the artist’s vision of the scenery. Even though the second half of the 19th century was the time of rebelliousness in the art world, Henri Matisse managed to find his own niche and create his own style of painting. While “Still Life with Oranges II” appears as a primitive piece of work that neglects canonic rules of proportion, shade and volume, it opens doors to the personal world of the artists, where there is a place for imagination and flirting with the audience. Bright colors and swirls of brush strokes celebrate life and create an uplifting mood, which we often under appreciate in a painting.

“The process starts out in an incredibly open way with endless possibilities; the addition of each plane of colour, however, progressively limits the work’s evolution and, ultimately, when a painting ‘works’, it coalesces into a composition that is intuitive and carefully controlled.” GS

The first thing you notice in Matisse’s painting is the purple coat that Lydia Delectorskaya, his lover of many years, is wearing. This coat, an exotic Moroccan costume, with its bold and vivid color, jumps right out at its viewers. While Lydia reclines for her pose, the vase of flowers and fruit on the table in the foreground become apparent to the audience. As do the bold shapes and patterns that are on the walls, with their incredibly bright colors, outlined with thick lines.

This formal art analysis will compare and contrast the line, color, light, and composition of "Gertrude Stein by Pablo Picasso and “The Toilet Of Venus" by Francois Boucher. The formal qualities of these paintings provide a classically orientated approach to the individual subject, which provide similar methods of composition and line. However, Picasso tends to chose earthy color tones in contrast to the brightly colored image provided by Boucher of Madame de Pompadour. More so, Boucher provides a much more lighted environment for his subject, which is dissimilar to the muted light of Gertrude stein in an interior setting. In essence, a comparison and contrast to the line, color, composition, and lighting will be formally analyzed in

Visual opulence, creativity, inimitable vision, and a style that is highly influential are the many characteristics of an admired movement in art history, that being of the Post-Impressionism movement (1875-1892). This movement, which was a by-product of the Impressionism movement, is the bridging gap between the two movements known as Realism and Expressionism. Post-Impressionism takes on some of the stylistic characteristics of these movements; however, it does not contain the all too glossy visuals of Realism or the heavily fantastic visuals of Expressionism, rather it is the intermediary of these two poles. My paper will discuss why this link was absolutely essential to the history of art movements, and I will be specifically using the

In Matisse's artwork, it is very similar looking to Cezanne's in content and style. The bodies of the bathers are flowing and have curvature and are well defined with boundary lines. Cezanne uses a thick dark line with color on the inside to create shadows, shapes, and form; while Matisse uses thin lines with vivid color on the outside of the lines to create shadow, form, and movement. With Matisse, there is also a purposeful inconsistency in how the colors are used. Some forms have darker colors below them, while others have these same dark colors above them. The effect is the same for

The use of geometric shapes in this painting allows the subject to be viewed in both a recognizable and unrecognizable state at the same time. Overall, geometric shapes and patterns play an essential role in what the viewer sees, which is further supported by a powerful color palate.

Art has been part of our society since humanity existed. For countless years’ people been creating, observing, criticizing and appreciating art. Claude Monet’s piece titled Sunrise (Marine) illustrates the daylight in the industrial port of Le Havre of the north coast, France. This piece was made in March or April of 1873. The piece’s present location is the J. Paul Getty Museum, west pavilion, gallery w204. The medium is oil on canvas and is next to another piece made by Monet called The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in the morning light. Claude Monet was part of the impressionist movement that changes French paintings of the nineteenth century. For Sunrise (1872), people criticized the paint due to the appearance of an unfinished painting,

Art is able to evoke different feelings and emotions to each person that sets their eyes on it. The act of ‘looking’ is simple, but a lot comes from it. Where the eyes are first drawn to, the duration that the eyes are focused on a specific detail, and the thoughts that flood one’s brain when viewing art is all significant. These actions say more than the piece itself, it reveals emotions of both the artist and the audience. Art can be expressed through infinite forms, but the underlying importance is not with the art itself. It represents a place in time, displaying what was noteworthy to an individual in their own life. It serves as a lasting creation representative of human imagination with the ability to bring out a multitude of emotions from whoever views it. When art is created it represents the creativity of the human mind compacted into a physical object. Art has little usage aside from pure observation, yet it has prevailed throughout time, showing its importance to humanity. Art provides a lens into humanity, showcasing the human ability over time. When studied through history, art is a view into the development of humans and their interests. Through something as basic as commonly using symmetry to transitioning to asymmetry, the European’s perspective following the Renaissance is revealed. The making of art is solely up to one individual and their creativity. It is the pinnacle of

Henri Matisse and Boucher share a passion for the erotic view of their figures , Matisse have carefree flowing style figure in vivid bright colors in park scene while Boucher has a group of five being half man half beast figure , two nude women and nude Cupid babies in a woodland scene. Each used cherry landscape, vivid colors, and distinct brush work which is considered bold and dramatic which was a inspired by Impressionism and light hearted subject matter.

The Large Bathers, 1898-1905 is the largest of Paul Cezanne's pictures and has been cited as an example of his ideal of composition and his restoration of classic monumentality after its lapse during the nineteenth century. Cézanne’s great achievement forced the young Picasso, Matisse, and many other artists to contend with the implications of Cézanne’s art. This essay will discuss how both Matisse’s Bonheur de Vivre (Joy of Life) and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon are considered as inspired by and breaking free of The Large Bathers.

Texture is used to create a tonal harmony devoid of tactile or sensual appeal, therefore portraying volume. However, Cezanne leaves little room for color and volume to play their great roles as light diffuses to the balanced tints of ochre. Space is created by the absolute stillness of the piece thereby affirming the painter as a great master of composition, color, and design. Further, the piece features complex fields that create an abstraction by the artist’s sensitive and repetitive brushstrokes.

In order to demonstrate these specific characteristics, Leger incorporates many different types of elements into this piece. In this painting, color plays an important role. The shapes of the blue squares contrast altogether with the other shapes and also, with the mutated beige background. Leger uses numerous colors such as the neon yellow, red, blue, black, and green in order to reveal that the colors are free and therefore, these colors exist in space. As mentioned earlier, this painting included a variety of different shapes; there are two different types of shape that can be seen in this painting. The first type is geometric or regular shapes such as the squares, circles, and rectangles. The second, on the other hand, are organic and freeform shapes such as the feet, hands, and face. Next, Leger incorporates many lines throughout this portrait. From curved lines to a single horizontal line, Leger includes each different type to develop a sense of movement, or rhythm. The curved lines makes the viewer’s eyes circle around the piece to further realize the symbolism. For space, Leger leaves many of the corner as negative space. However, the corners of this painting are not the only ones Leger leaves as space. Because the shapes and colors are kept simple, there’s also quite a series of distance between the shapes even throughout the whole entire painting. Again, because of the simplicity of the shapes, even the texture of this painting can be seen as smooth. The painting does not involve any harsh or rugged lines, and is

When the two men meet, Matisse’s career was beginning to take off. On March 19th, 1906, his second one-man show opened at a Private Gallery where he exhibited fifty-five paintings, along with a number of sculptures, watercolors, drawings, and lithographs. The paintings ranged in date from 1897 to the current year, so the exhibition served as a retrospective that gave a clear idea of his art development. For the 1906 Salon exhibition, Matisse only showed a single painting, Le Bonheur de vivre (Fig. 5), which was the largest- and most daring- canvas he had ever done. Matisse’s creation of The women with the hat (Fig. 3) had unexpectedly shocked people, but with le Bonheur de vivre. Matisse appear to have purposely set out this painting to create a shocking effect. That Matisse wanted his painting to be a kind of manifesto. Leo Stein bought the painting and declared it to be “the most important painting done in our time.” And was hung up high in Gertrude and Leo’s studio. Leo’s high opinion of Le Bonheur de vivre must have vexed Picasso.