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Modernisms 1900-1980
Course: Modernisms 1900-1980 > Unit 2
Lesson 1: Fauvism and Matisse- A beginner's guide to Fauvism
- Fauve Landscapes and City Views
- André Derain, The Dance
- Matisse, Luxe, calme et volupté
- Henri Matisse, Open Window, Collioure
- Matisse, Bonheur de Vivre
- Matisse, Dance I
- Matisse, The Red Studio
- Matisse, The Red Studio
- Matisse, Goldfish
- Matisse, "The Blue Window"
- Matisse, Piano Lesson
- Matisse, Piano Lesson
- Matisse, The illustrated book, “Jazz”
- Conserving Henri Matisse's "The Swimming Pool"
- Fauvism and Matisse
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Matisse, Luxe, calme et volupté
Henri Matisse, Luxe, calme et volupté, 1904, oil on canvas, 37 x 46 inches (Museé d'Orsay, Paris) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker Painted while the artist stayed with the pointillist painter, Signac, at his home in Saint-Tropez on the Côte d'Azur. Matisse's title comes from Charles Baudelaire's poem, "L'invitation au voyage (Invitation To A Voyage)" from his collection, The Flowers of Evil. "Luxe, calme et volupté" translates just as it sounds in English: "Luxury, calm, and voluptuous(ness).". Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- What is the object in the sky that looks like a cigar shaped ufo? It doesn't look like a cloud. It's surrounded by tiny lines and a purplish aura like the object is emanating something, maybe energy. Is it true that a lot of classic paintings depict 'ufos'?(3 votes)
- While it may well be true that UFOs appear in particular paintings, I don't think that this is one of them. Matisse was experimenting with several new art styles here, and he really went wild with the color. You could say that the beach looks more like a lava flow than a beach! And you could also say that a cloud looks more like a UFO than a cloud. But I think he's actually just painting a beach, and a cloud. It's significant that he uses the word "calm" (calme) in the title. The colors and brush strokes may be on the wild side, but the people in the picture look pretty calm. And no one's pointing at the sky.
The Museum of Modern Art owns an oil study of this work, and there's a short video about it on their site. You might find it interesting to see an earlier version of this painting:
http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=80016(3 votes)
- how old is the blue window(1 vote)
- Who thinks that being naked is better and more free?(1 vote)
- Being Naked is certainly better, more free and more convenient in the shower. But out of doors around town..... I wouldn't recommend it.(2 votes)
- Can this work be seen as a transition between the postimpressionst pointilism of a Seurat, and the fully developed distortion of form and color we see with the Fauves?(1 vote)
- The pointilism style of art was used by painters of the post-impressionist era such as Van Gogh and Seurat. Mattise is said to belong to the Neo-Impressionist group but that term is also synonymous with the style of pointilsm he displays here and in the Fauves. I wouldn't say he's the transition though.(1 vote)
- Is anybody else who has a decent amount of pixel art (especially that of CGA monitor) exposure in their media having issues relating to what the instructors are stating?
I keep getting thrown off--that retro pixel art styles tend to share enough similarities--and have been part of pop culture long enough to hold a similar romance as black and white movies. Makes how people are handling these images a kind of, "I'm not part of the same people as you" for how I respond to them talking about it.
Anybody else getting that vibe here?(1 vote) - Matisse puts a contemporary spin on a classic style of art. What could some of his other influences possibly be?(1 vote)
- Matisse cited his major inspirations as Manet, John Peter Russel, and even Japanese art.(1 vote)
- where does the painting take place in?(1 vote)
- on the French Riviera, where nudity on the beach is not uncommon, even in the 21st century.(1 vote)
- i cant hear the people properly, its like there are ghosts in the background....(1 vote)
- I just checked and the audio is very clear, although since we recorded this in the gallery, you can hear the muffled sounds of other visitors. Please check your settings and try again.(1 vote)
- Do you think this style was more concerned about starting to depict emotions instead of just an idealistic representation?(1 vote)
- It was for sure the intention brought up by the style(1 vote)
- on questions 4 five six and one(0 votes)
Video transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: We're at
the Musee d'Orsay, and we're looking at a really
early and important Henri Matisse. This is "Luxe,
Calme et Volupte." And the title and the
subject comes from a poem by Baudelaire. And it's a really
enigmatic painting, and one that I think we
should locate in its making. It was made during a
summer trip to the seaside with one of the great
post-Impressionist painters, Signac, who was a Pointillist. And so you can clearly see
the influence of that art, of the art of Seurat,
of Signac, here. But this is not Pointillism. You know, it does use
these little brush strokes, which have pieces of
independent color, but it's using it in a way
that really, in a sense, doesn't understand, or
it isn't interested in, the optical effects that
Signac was interested in. SPEAKER 2: They're much
more intense colors. They're very vivid
and saturated colors used very
unnaturalistically, not used the way that Seurat
was interested in, in terms of
increasing luminosity. Here, the colors are almost
an affront to the senses. There are reds and
purples and oranges. SPEAKER 1: That's perfect,
because the next year, Matisse, with a number of
other painters, will become known as "Les fauves." SPEAKER 2: The wild beasts. SPEAKER 1: That's right. Using color in such
radical and aggressive ways that they're accused
of being madmen. SPEAKER 2: And
you can definitely see that beginning
to happen here. SPEAKER 1: But
this is a painting that's meant to have a kind
of classical aspect to it. It's not meant to be
aggressive in that sense. SPEAKER 2: There's
a real tension here. SPEAKER 1: There is, between
this notion of luxury, of calm, of this kind of
ideal, almost classicized past. And of course, this wildly
imaginative use of color. SPEAKER 2: But
there's also a tension between the forms
themselves, which seem classical and creative, in
a way, where line is primarily important. These beautiful harmonious
lines and the arrangement between the figures
that might remind us of the art of Puvis de
Chavannes, or in Cezanne's "Bathers," the structured
relationship of forms, and that, in contrast,
with this wild color. SPEAKER 1: Where it's creating
this tremendously activated surface, where it seems like
the paint is constantly shifting and in motion. It seems so antithetical-- SPEAKER 2: To the calm. SPEAKER 1: Right, to
the very subject matter. It's an artist who's
in total flux, who's looking for a
pathway, who's looking to understand what
painting can now do. What to do with this
extraordinary freedom that is available to the
artist at the beginning of the 20th century. SPEAKER 2: Exactly. I think that the artist at
the end of the 19th century had bequeathed to the artists
of the early 20th century this incredible freedom
in terms of color, in terms of thinking
about the painting as an independent unit
and structure that can have its own internal
organization, a sense of subjectivity, of the
interiority of the artist is important. And one feels that this
is a moment of transition. SPEAKER 1: And yet the painting
itself is a tour de force. It's an incredibly
beautiful thing to look at, even with all of
its internal contradictions. [MUSIC PLAYING]