The Yellow Dress Analysis

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The Yellow Dress, by Henri Matisse, is a painting that shows Matisse’s struggle as a painter. The painted is dated from 1929 to 1931. The date range tells us that Matisse was struggling with this artwork and changing his mind about techniques and decisions throughout his time working on it. The Yellow Dress could be seen as the last painting before a turning point in Matisse’s life.
The strokes are a bit tentative and prove as evidence of things going on underneath what is actually visible. The positioning of the arms and the hands, as well as the ribbons on the dress, was changed quite a few times and then outlined with black when Matisse was finally satisfied with the position.
There are several drawings that Matisse did before he completed …show more content…

The years he worked on this, as well as a few years prior, are known as his early Nice period. Throughout this period, his main subject was always, or almost always, a female figure or an odalisque that he portrayed as either seated, reclining in some interior that he created himself, or simply standing. After 1930, there was a bolder simplification and new vigor that was present in his art. Some of that can be seen in The Yellow Dress, such as in the woman’s face, where he does not express much detail. As this painting was started in 1929, it is not yet as noticeable, as after this piece of …show more content…

In his earlier years, Matisse had once controversially written that he wanted to create “an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter, an art which would be…something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue.” In his artworks from after The Yellow Dress, it can be said that he did accomplish that which he once said he wanted to do. His art, as can be seen in Large Reclining Nude, was reduced to essentials and he progressively selected, simplified, and reduced not only form but also color, until the latter consisted of little more than rose, blue, black, and

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