painting. Initially conceived in 1909 as a scene of Arcadian leisure, four years later in Morocco, Matisse divided the canvas vertically into equal, hard-edges of green, black, white, and pale gray, suppressed the waterfall, condensed the foliage and transformed his four bathers, cutting off the head of one, slicing another’s legs at the ankles into massive, mutilated, stone-grey figures. The canvas marked the reconciliation between form and feeling, reason and intuition that Matisse had been working on ever since he returned from Morocco (Figure 3).
Matisse transposed this traditional arcadian and Moroccan bathing beach into a monumental image of grief and stoicism. The mood is lightened only by the paint itself, with the presence of fine
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feathery brushstrokes and glints of colors. He uses pale blues for the sky and peachy pinks on the belly and breasts of his female nudes, suggesting human delicacy and warmth (Figure 4). There is elegance with its movement from left to right regulated by bands of color. The four gray witnesses or mourners are separated by lively greens on the left side of the canvas separated from the funeral shades on the other by a black area, dividing the past from the present. Matisse called this “the modern method of construction.”5 This modern method of construction allowed him to draw on the ancient myths of the passage from light to dark and the earth to underworld.3 There is something heroic about his somber and his solitary effort to confront a reality that remained unfeasible for most of the other contemporaries. Bathers by a River could only have been painted in 1916, at the moment when the enormity of WW1 was finally realized, but before the disillusionment and cynicism of 1917 set in.5 The representation of female bathers by a waterfall represents an image of national suffering. Bathers by a River brings together a number of distant realities for a distinct emotional effect with its lush gardens and nude inhabitants on the left contrast to the mourners on the right (Figure 3 & 5). It combines both volumetric figures contrast to its flat background.6 This new style classified Matisse as a paradox: “For with at times his evident love of the beautiful as shown by his grace of line and infrequently his composition and color, he seems to prefer to render the ugly in an ugly way.” His paintings violate the essential cannons of art and a love of the morbid and ugly characterizations of the human from… so utterly untrue to nature.”2 Matisse saw the beauty in simple expressions of line and color and strayed away from his traditional style, which caused people to question his direction. Most critics no longer enjoyed his new style because he no longer portrayed the realities of nature. When viewing Bathers by a River, four female nudes gaze downward towards the viewer. This enlargement of the figures evokes a cinematic effect that allows the viewer to enter the scene (Figure 6). Visible cracks are present over the long and curvilinear brush strokes, revealing paint underneath (Figure 7). Matisse’s hand is seen within the brush strokes. Matisse uses pale greens, blues, pinks, and grays, a palette very different from his bright original rendition and his monochromatic intermediate. The colors blend into another in the figures where Matisse’s hand is shown. He blends shades of gray, pink, and blue together in the figures to create depth, volume, and perception. He divides the painting into four separate panels created by an almost straight line, again suggesting his hand. Matisse uses long rhythmic brush strokes and strong bold outlines for his figures. He uses multiple lines towards the feet and hands to suggest movement (Figure 8). Each of the four figures in his painting has their own space. The female nudes themselves are realistic and abstract. They have weight created by Matisse’s use of geometric body proportions and have long and lean figures; however, they are unrealistic because there are no distinguishing features of each nude and because of the colors he used to represent their skin tone. Bathers by a River combines Matisse’s familiar Fauvist style with new elements of Cubism. The female figures in the painting are not known; they are faceless and have no distinguishing features.
Matisse commonly painted female nudes, and other than his self-portraits, the females in his paintings were not specified. The setting is naturalistic much like Matisse’s past paintings, but is represented in a different way. The females in Bathers by a River are larger than the intended viewer and all but one face the viewer. Their gaze is not directed towards the viewer and their bodies are note entirely exposed to the viewer like a traditional female nude. The female figures in Matisse’s Bathers by a River are not objectified because they are not representative of any particular female, they do not have distinguished sexual parts, and they are not positioned in a way to be “consumed” by the …show more content…
viewer. The enormity of the figures suggests strength and power over the viewer.
The figure on the left side of the painting and the figure in the white panel face away from the viewer, do not allow the viewer to see her female anatomy. The figure placed between the sharp blades of grass and the black panel is sitting down with her hand on her knee, a pose that suggests agency. The figure on the right side of the painting is the only figure that faces the viewer. The placement of each figure allows each of them to demand their own attention. The placement of the figures and the positions they are in are reminiscent of Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon. Because the figures are unidentifiable and presented with indistinguishable features, and no faces, there is no commentary on class, race, religion, or sexuality using the female nude.
Henri Matisse’s portrayal of the female nude in Bathers by a River represents his frustrations with the political climate in France after World War I while also documenting the evolution of his style over the course of a decade. Bathers by a River is described as one of the five most pivotal works of Matisse’s career because of its importance as a symbol of his fear, the strength of the French people, and the collective moment when the effects of the tragedies of WW1 were finally
realized.
The painting is organized simply. The background of the painting is painted in an Impressionist style. The blurring of edges, however, starkly contrasts with the sharp and hard contours of the figure in the foreground. The female figure is very sharp and clear compared to the background. The background paint is thick compared to the thin lines used to paint the figures in the foreground. The thick paint adds to the reduction of detail for the background. The colors used to paint the foreground figures are vibrant, as opposed to the whitened colors of the Impressionist background. The painting is mostly comprised of cool colors but there is a range of dark and light colors. The light colors are predominantly in the background and the darker colors are in the foreground. The vivid color of the robe contrasts with the muted colors of the background, resulting in an emphasis of the robe color. This emphasis leads the viewer's gaze to the focal part of the painting: the figures in the foreground. The female and baby in the foreground take up most of the canvas. The background was not painted as the artist saw it, but rather the impression t...
The painting depicts a mother and her four children, who are all leaning on her as she looks down solemnly, her tired, despondent expression suggests she felt trapped in her roles as being a mother and a wife. The woman and her children are clearly the focal point of the artwork as the bright colours used to paint them stand out impeccably against the dull, lifeless colours of the background. This painting appears to be centred around the ideology that women are home-keepers, whose main role is to satisfy and assist her husband while simultaneously minding the children and keeping the home tidy and ready for his return. The social consequences of this artwork could have been that the woman could have been berated for not taking pleasure out of being a mother and raising her children, as a woman should. She could have been made redundant as her husband may have felt as though she is no longer useful if she couldn’t adequately adhere to her roles as a mother and a
Henri Matisse was a French Artist during the Cubist and Fauvist period, which influenced his art greatly. Although he was primarily known as a painter, he was also a printmaker, sculptor, and draughtsman. His piece Mademoiselle Yvonne Landsberg resembles that of a print; however, it is in oil painting. Mademoiselle Yvonne Landsberg is believed to have been a piece in which Matisse was experimenting with new ideas and methods, as this painting appears to be very labor intensive. There are multiple parts of the painting where Matisse scraped away layers of paint and leave behind lines that parallel cross-hatching. The aspect of the painting that is different from other cubist pieces of the time are the lines that emanate from the Mlle Landsberg, thought to be a depiction of her movement while the piece was being made.
The painting is intimate, almost as if was not meant for the eyes of the viewer. The mother gently holds the baby, within her arms, as she feeds him. The mother’s gaze is met by the child as it reaches out to touch her face. The background is simple, emphasizing the closeness between the mother and child, much like Le Brun’s piece. Additionally, Cassatt’s The Child's Bath, 1893 “with its striking and unorthodox composition, is one of Cassatt’s masterworks” (“The Child's Bath”). Within this composition, she employed the use of unconventional devices such as cropped forms, bold patterns and outlines, and a flattened perspective (“The Child's Bath”). Cassatt utilizes a pastel-like color scheme, exemplifying the delicateness and tenderness between the mother and her bathing child. Her brush strokes are swift and gentle, again, suggesting the passionate, yet soft, love the mother has for her child. The elevated vantage point invites the viewer to observe this intimate moment, but not to
According to Shearer West, a portrait is “a work of art that represents a unique individual”. West elaborates on the implications of this definition of a portrait, introducing the dilemma of the painter, who may strive to illustrate either or both the ideal figure, or a likeness of the sitter. Jean Germain Drouais’ resolution to such a dilemma can be observed in the painting, Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame, as he struggles to portray both the femininity of the ideal woman in the 1760s, while conveying the more present, aged and unique characteristics of the lady that captured King Louis XV’s heart.
The composition of this painting forces the eye to the woman, and specifically to her face. Although the white wedding dress is large and takes up most of the woman’s figure, the white contrasts with her face and dark hair, forcing the viewer to look more closely into the woman’s face. She smokes a cigarette and rests her chin on her hands. She does not appear to be a very young woman and her eyes are cast down and seem sad. In general, her face appears to show a sense of disillusionment with life and specifically with her own life. Although this is apparently her wedding day, she does not seem to be happy.
In this work, the colors and shapes come together to form the depiction of a woman in a chair gazing out at the landscape beyond a window. This subject matter relates to Picasso’s infamous relationship with women and may serve as a depiction of one of the many women he was linked with. The painting depicts the woman with a dual omniscient and introspective vision. Picasso develops this dichotomy through the depiction of a wayward eye gazing out the window and a larger ubiquitous eye glaring directly at the viewers. In constructing such a contrast, the painter is able to convey the personality...
“In spite of their economic status, Morisot and Cassatt had many obstacles to overcome in establishing themselves as artists, and they experienced more discouragement than anyone would be likely to guess from looking at their works. Not surprisingly, they concentrated on familiar, domestic, themes. ” (Francis E. Hyslop) Interestingly enough, at a quick glance their paintings can look the same, but their representation of women and the message they try to convey is remarkably contrasting. Mary Cassatt focused on the “real” definition of woman. She wanted her audience to view women as strong and independent human beings who are completely capable of pursuing anything they set their mind too. Mary Cassatt made her audience think, she wanted to make a quiet scandal, she wanted to speak through her figures. In Mary Cassatt’s The loge (1882), she illustrates two elegantly dressed women enjoying a night at the theatre. Usually, men are the ones that would go out without their wives and enjoy a casual or elegant social scene while women socialize in their houses drinking tea and watching their kids play. “Cassatt’s new images include representations of women as independent public people; women pursuing interests which are not directed toward the needs of others; and women who enjoy the company of other women.” (Yeh) This painting illustrates how women are more than capable to socialize in a public
The nineteenth century produced a large number of works of art from numerous of artists. Since I have been to the Art Institute in Chicago, I decided to walk through this gallery online. Remembering that when I went there I liked a lot of the artwork that I saw. There I stumbled upon an artwork by Claude Monet called “The beach at Sainte-Adresse’. This painting caught my eye because of the beach scenery. The beach has always been my favorite place to go, where I am able to relax and clear my mind. This is what I was able to feel when I saw this artwork.
The significant difference is two individuals in the portrait are males. On the other hand, it is rarely to see the portrait of father and son appearing in the same frame throughout the history of western art. In most of the portraits, fathers are serious and alone. In the 19th century France, women are concerned with the realms of their activities, men are free to go anywhere they want in the whole day. Based on Garb’s description, the theater is the few places women are able to go for entertainment. For the rest of their time, they have to stay in the private sphere because of conventional ideology. For the males in the patriarchal society, they are eager to exemplify their ambitions and masculinity in the public spaces. From their point of view, home is the assigned setting for women. Wives and children, sometimes, are equal to the tools of manifesting their power and social status.
During a visit to Brittany, Matisse discovered Impressionism (Essers 8). The works of Cezanne and Van Gogh influenced him. When he returned, he exhibited his first painting, Dinner Table, in 1897. This was his first painting of impressionistic style. Matisse’s art began to concentrate on landscapes, still life, and domestic interiors. Still life is a theme Henri would follow for the rest of his career.
His styles and techniques were so particular and well-liked, that he succeeded regardless of the trends going on around him; The Dance (1910) being the perfect example, for it was loved and hated by many. By the 1920's, he was increasingly noticed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. He was appreciated for bringing that traditional style painting into the modern age and not allowing it to die out like many other artistic traditions had.11 Even though he had been firmly criticized for how he painted, he was still respected for his eclectic style of line and brushwork. Matisse dreamt of, "an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling subject matter" (MA, 38).12 He did this by painting things with simple detail, and also with a light, airy, feel. He wanted to convey the message of classical art, as well as very modern styles of art. As he was influenced by many, he, later on, influenced other great modern artists. He carefully prepared his works but chose colors spontaneously and freely, this is what he called instinct. Like his art, Matisse's career is tightly consolidated. In the context of his development as an artist, his illustrations of the nude females in The Dance (1910), have quite a different significance than judgmental commentators give
Picasso ignored the traditional aesthetic canons governing the representation of the female nude. The bodies are deformed. The woman sitting presents both his back and his face. The influence of African art, which replaces that of Orientalism of the nineteenth century, is very clear in the
While looking at this sculpture it is transformed every time you move your own head, walk around it, and bend closer. It just has a way of changing shape. While looking at it, it first appeared to me as a man or some kind of creature. Looking at the name, one would realize what the sculpture is. The sculpture was a woman. It has a lot of rough and sharp points, but the surface was very smooth. It is kind of disturbing on how Picasso seems to see beneath the skin. He reveals the tendons in Fernande's neck. The fractured texture of Fernande's face, her hair a system of gorges and upland ridges, is a metaphor for the way we experience another person. (Hughs) Like Rembrandt's most intimate portraits, it is about the mystery of being close to another human being. (Cooper) Picasso makes you recognize this by inviting your eye down into those channels and crevices, until you feel you are inside Fernande's head. You can never exhaust the richness of this head. (Hughs)
Women’s interest in art and attempts to hold a career would be met with disapproval in a society demanding a woman stay out of masculine activities and to stick to their realm of abilities. In an anonymous letter submitted to a French art journal L’Artiste the expectation of women’s participation in art is expressed as: