Henri Matisse - NATURE MORTE AU LIERRE

-
 

Henri Matisse
1869 - 1954
NATURE MORTE AU LIERRE
Signed Henri. Matisse and dated 1915 (lower right)
Charcoal and estompe on paper
29 5/8 by 22 1/8 in.
75.5 by 56.3 cm
Executed in 1915 
"Drawing does not depend on forms being copied exactly as they are in nature or on the patient assembling of exact details, but on the profound feeling of the artist before the objects that he has chosen, on which his attention is focused."

—Henri Matisse quoted in Jack Flam, ed., Matisse on Art, Berkeley, 1995, p. 179

Nature morte au lierre of 1915 is an impressive large-scale work, combining the sensuousness and rounded forms of Matisse's celebrated Variations on a Still Life by de Heem (1915, Museum of Modern Art, New York) with a Cézanne-esque treatment of the picture plane. Although not a direct study for Matisse's variation of the de Heem painting, the present work incorporates many of the same artistic principles addressed in other seventeenth-century studies of this period. The bold outline and subtle shading created by the use of charcoal and estompe in the present work, combined with the imposing scale, result in a monumentality that transcends the medium of a work on paper. 
"The newly monumental version of organic form that Matisse discovered in this period (and which climaxed in the great still-life paintings of 1916) owes its particular density to the increased gravity of his line, but also to a change in the manner of his visual address to objects.... As with Cubist drawing, the intervals between the parts are as conclusively present as the parts themselves, for it is in those intervals that the rigorously defined space forces itself on our imagination. Of course, Matisse had always paid attention to the pictoriality of the white ground. But now it is tensely charged in quite a new way, as positive and negative areas interchange in expressive importance" (John Elderfield, The Drawings of Henri Matisse, London, 1984, p. 68).
A combination of graceful, restrained lines and sensuously blended charcoal, Nature morte au lierre is a wonderful example of Matisse’s mature drawing style. Throughout the 1910s Matisse drew extensively, developing the estompe technique. This use of charcoal enabled Matisse to imbue his works with a masterful blend of smoky shadow and tremulous luminosity. The technique freed Matisse from the rigors of strict representation, creating a looser physicality that became an expression of feeling.
Pablo Picasso, Bouquet dans un vase, 1907, oil on canvas
Lucien Freud, Interior with plant, reflection listening, 1967-68, oil on canvas

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pablo Picasso - Nature morte

-
Image
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Nature morte signed and dated 'Picasso 25. Av. 37.' (centre right) oil on canvas 15 x 24 1/8 in. (38 x 61.1 cm.) Painted on 25 April 1937  There is an intensely poetic atmosphere to Nature morte, painted in 1937. Stars are glowing in the night sky, while the foreground is dominated by the accoutrements and accessories of a leisured and contemplative evening. Pipe and book lie alongside a drink and a candelabra, hinting at the passing of an evening of solitary pleasures, both of the mind and of the body. The lyricism of the scene is heightened by the swirling curlicues of the balcony in the background, as though this evening were being spent in the countryside, rather than in Paris. As though it was the Eighteenth Century and a time of peace, rather than a metropolis, with the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. While there is undoubtedly an air of whimsy to Nature morte, the picture - both in terms of composition and content - also reveals...
Read more

gulp - world's largest stop motion animation

-
Image
'gulp' by aardman all images courtesy aardman 'gulp', a short film created by  sumo science  at  aardman , has broken a world record for the 'largest stop-motion animation'. completely shot using a 12-megapixel cellphone camera on a nokia N8, the project was set on 11,000 m2 of sand on south wales' pendine beach. props include a full-scale boat and a rain-jacket clad actor to tell a harrowing episode of a fisherman's time at sea. the short involved a large team that raked and smoothed out patterns on the sand to create a seascape--and the inside of a whale's belly--when viewed from above. shot from a large crane overhead, the images were then compiled to run at 25 frames per second to create the stop-motion effect. make sure to check out the making-up film embedded at the bottom of the page. Gulp. The world's largest stop-motion animation shot on a Nokia N8.  from  Nokia HD  on  Vimeo . camera set up ...
Read more

Paul Cézanne - Ferme en Normandie, été (Hattenville)

-
Image
  Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) Ferme en Normandie, été (Hattenville) oil on canvas 25 5/8 x 31 7/8 in. (65.1 x 81.1 cm.) Painted in 1882  Painted in 1882, Ferme en Normandie, été (Hattenville) is the largest of a series of four works that Paul Cézanne created during a summer sojourn at the home of his friend, the legendary impressionist collector Victor Chocquet, in Hattenville, Normandy. Chocquet, one of the first ardent champions and earliest collectors of Impressionism, was also the first owner of this painting and it remained in his collection until his death. Painted at a time when Cézanne was reaching artistic maturity, Ferme en Normandie, été (Hattenville) exemplifies a crucial moment in the artist’s career, illustrating his move from Impressionism towards his own distinctive and highly influential ‘constructed’ style. With an array of fresh and verdant green tones, the scene is an evocative, poetic vision of a quiet corner of a rural garden bathed in the blissful g...
Read more