Oil on canvas, 82 × 101 cm. I. A. Morosov collection, The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.
Expression and Fragmentation
Matisse and the Wild Beasts in Paris: The Fauves and the Autonomy of Colour
‘For us colours became cartridges of dynamite. They should discharge light,’ said André Derain. As a reaction to the nuance-rich, atmospheric whirring of colour of the Impressionists, the Fauves discovered, along with their main representatives like André Derain, Henri Matisse and Maurice Vlaminck, that the painted image can go beyond reality. As an early attempt at liberation from the centuries-long tradition, it serves as an image of reality to be referred to or to be interpreted. For the first time in the history of art, a painting appeared on stage that was satisfied by and beholden only to itself. The goal was to reproduce the emotional experience of nature and situations solely by use of colour. ‘We went straight to the colour,’ said Derain. Bright, unmixed shades, squeezed directly out of the paint tube, made their way onto the canvas. The Fauves worked with an intensity which had been unheard of before then, and their ability to provoke was further enhanced by their widespread use of colour. At their first exhibit in 1905 at the Paris Salon d’Automne, this tremendous joy found in the sensuality of colours earned the artists the name Les Fauves (the Wild Beasts), intended as an epithet from the art critic, Louis de Vauxcelles.
Their leading figure, the strongest creative and independent artistic personality among them, was the former lawyer, Henri Matisse. With apparent matter-of-factness, he ignored tradition and the accepted norms the use of colour and about how a painting was supposed to be organised. He created a painting with simple, decorative paint surfaces, surrounding the viewer with a magical lightness. According to Matisse, one must start with ‘the courage to rediscover the purity of the method.’ Matisse thought of an art of equilibrium, an art of peace and purity without distracting representational qualities. He dreamed of an art that was its own being, a painting, not a copy, not decoration. In 1908, his essay, ‘Notes of a Painter’ became one of the most influential manifestos by an artist in the 20th century. In it he states:
I dream of an art of equilibrium, of purity, of tranquillity… of an art that is a sedative for everyone, a rest for the brain, something like a good easy chair in which one can rest from physical exertions.
From his hand arose a kind of paradise. Imperceptibly, the viewer is engulfed by the warmth of splendid colours and a sense of deep satisfaction. Matisse painted still-lifes and interiors. He painted people in contemplation and in their own environment, individuals uninhibited in their natural surroundings. He never concerned himself with commercial or industrial subjects. His ever-enduring subject was nature, untouched by human hand.
An early example of this is Harmony in Red from the year 1908, which was acquired by the Russian merchant and collector, Sergei Shchukin, who acquainted the artists of his own country with it. We see a salon in red. The table and the wallpaper are in the same red. Even the large floral tendril pattern is red. So the table and the wall weave into one another and become one. Any possible perspective becomes blurred. A fine horizontal line timidly indicates the borders. Only on one table edge that is marked by the apron of the female figure does the eye find a perspective to hold onto. The view through the window, cut into the side, acts like a view onto a green poster. The fruits on the table do not show an orderly still life. Thrown together just as if they had fallen from a tree, they confidently decorate the table. With this painting, Matisse refers to his early work from the years 1896–1897 using the same subject in the representational perspective. The subject also shows him to be familiar with historic masterpieces. The painting structure and the window view correspond to paintings that depict interiors of the Renaissance such as, for example, Diego Velázquez.
Henri Matisse, Harmony in Red, 1908.
Oil on canvas, 180 × 220 cm. The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
Henri Matisse, La Danse, 1909–1910.
Oil on canvas, 260 × 391 cm. The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
Henri Matisse, Joie de vivre, 1905–1906.
Oil on canvas, 175 × 241 cm. The Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania.
In Harmony in Red, it is already apparent that the simple and matter of fact juxtaposition of colour will become indicative of Matisse’s style. This painting structure of surface next to surface without the suggestion of perspective influenced quite a number of artists in the 20th century. After acquiring the painting, Harmony in Red, Shchukin commissioned two paintings from Matisse for his house in Moscow themed ‘Dance’ and ‘Music’. They were almost twice as big as their predecessor with a height of 2.6 metres and almost 4 metres wide. Matisse painted them from the late months of 1909 until the summer of 1910. In Dance, five oversized figures perform an ecstatic dance on a hill. The rhythm is denoted by how their arms and legs bend and curve. Their naked, red, glowing bodies dance in a circle on a blue and green background. At first, the paintings provoked dismay.
The arrangement of the painting was of an almost austere simplicity. The background had only two colours and five red bodies. It is indeed because of this lack of pretension that the painting exudes the grandeur of the moment, the charm and grace in ecstasy, the infinite quality of the universe in the scene being depicted. Even today, after nearly one hundred years, fascination and deep emotional impact still grip the viewer.
Dance was preceded by a large painting that Matisse had done during the winter of 1905–1906, namely, Joie de vivre. This was his only contribution to the 1906 Salon des Indépendants. Due to its dimensions and its bright colours, it caused anger and drew attention. Paul Signac, who at that time the vice president of the Indépendants, reacted with irritation and wrote a friend disparagingly and with disappointment about the artistic result:
Matisse, whose experiments I have until now liked, seems to have gone to the dogs. On a canvas with a width of about two and half meters, he surrounded a few odd figures with a line as thick as a thumb. Then he covered the whole thing with clear defined colours, which, as pure as they may be, appeared repulsive.
Sixteen nude figures, grouped themselves in a clearing, some lie, some stand, and others whirl in a dance. A smooth rhythm runs through the composition. The dancing flow of the lines through the figures and the surrounding nature envelopes the setting in a rhythmic equilibrium, permitting man and nature to become one. Joie de vivre is today one of the important early works of the artist. It is a great achievement.
Even late in life, Matisse kept his innovative freshness. ‘What I create, what I form, has its purpose therein that I create it, that I form it, and if filled with the joy that I get from my work – my work?’ Gotthard Jedlicka, who visited him near Nice, responded to Matisse:
The person playing in the purest fashion is the child, because it becomes wrapped up in its game. I also play with scissors as a child and also just like a child, I also do not ask what will result from the game that provides me with such precious hours.
Raoul Dufy, Les Affiches à Trouville, 1906. Oil on canvas, 65 × 81 cm.
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
Out of this would result the masterpieces of concentrated simplification, his later Papiers découpés. In their purity of form and their colour, they are unbelievably beautiful. ‘To cut out coloured paper means to give colour shape. To cut directly into colour reminds me of the immediacy of a sculptor working with stone.’ Although Matisse did not make sculptures, he modelled in plaster and clay. As a painter who created sculptures, he is, next to Pablo Picasso, one of the greatest of the century. The Chapel of the Rosary in Vence is the synthesis of his artistic work. It was almost entirely realised