In the early 1900’s, Henri Matisse was going through a transitional phase in his work. For much of his early career, his paintings had been quite classical in style - with pieces like “The Maid” and “The Woman Reading” (see below) showing a warm, homeliness that will surprise people who are only familiar with his later colour schemes.
I love your substack. It’s my everyday bite size art. So very glad I came across it. Would be so nice to have the years of the artists life within the essays too.
These two are such a contrast in how they reveal the sailor as well. It feels like going from Brando to Baryshnikov. I'm trying to figure out why, but that certainly makes The Bathers and The Dance make more sense.
Those bottles in the first picture are beautiful, and I love Matisse and a lot of his Fauve works, but I do like the first sailor better; but the contrast between the two is fascinating. Thank you for drawing our eyes to a side by side!
Very insightful…..Thanks for sharing!
I love your substack. It’s my everyday bite size art. So very glad I came across it. Would be so nice to have the years of the artists life within the essays too.
These two are such a contrast in how they reveal the sailor as well. It feels like going from Brando to Baryshnikov. I'm trying to figure out why, but that certainly makes The Bathers and The Dance make more sense.
Those bottles in the first picture are beautiful, and I love Matisse and a lot of his Fauve works, but I do like the first sailor better; but the contrast between the two is fascinating. Thank you for drawing our eyes to a side by side!
I guess I mark myself as an old fogey by admitting that I greatly admire the first version of the sailor to the second. I also like Brando.
For me there’s also the point that the second one, despite style, looks like rather a horse jockey than a sailor