Painting Study - Madame Matisse
It is hard to imagine that "The Green Stripe" could be painted of the same subject only 8 years prior (see below). In "Henri Matisse", John Jacobs described this piece as reflecting a "...severely restrained decorative impulse." He continued, "The masklike face is modelled in gray, and the features are picked out by a series of curved lines that structurally relate to the general shape of the head." The shape of the flattened body is "closely related to the green outline of the wicker chair".
If you look closely at the background and the subject, it is easy to see that their is little differentiation between the two. The heavy emphasis created by the pallid skin tone and black eyes, draws your eyes immediately to her face. This was the last painting that Matisse created of his wife, and it is said that she wept when she first looked upon it.
As a class, let's discuss what you forces you feel are at work in this painting. I offer these two paintings as a comparison:
The Green Stripe
Shira Punu Masque
No comments:
Post a Comment