Henry Matisses The Three O'Clock Sitting - Book Report/Review Example

Matisse’s (1924) The Three O Clock Sitting Henry Matisse’s (1924) The Three O Clock Sitting is an oil-on-canvas painting. Its dimensions are 36 4 x 28 3/4 in. (92.1 x 73 cm). The Roderick H. Cushman Family gave this painting to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2008. This paper describes the surrounding circumstances of the artist’s life when the work was done and the subject matter and interpretation of the work. Early Nice Period: Working Away from War In 1917, fifty-year-old Henry Matisse moved to the southern part of France in Nice to create a distance between him and wartime events, as well as between his work and the Parisian avant-garde (Watkins, 1987, p.273). The years 1917 to 1930 is called the Early Nice period in Matisse’s life as a painter. In 1921, he rented the apartment at Charles-Felix, which served as his home until 1938, when he moved to a larger, more lavish room in the former Hotel Regina on the hill at Cimiez. Russell (1986) illustrated the allure of Nice to Matisse. He noted that Nice had a vibrant fashion and architecture styles and sunlight-filled warm weather. He believed that Matisse must have loved the Nice’s sunlight the most: “[Matisse] loved the color, the silvery light, the strange plunging perspectives, the flimsy unserious accoutrements of the long narrow hotel bedrooms and the daylong interplay of indoors and outdoors” (Russell, 1986). Nice contrasted with “the long cruel years of World War I” because it offered “a world in convalescence, and every moment was to be savored” (Russell, 1986). Nice, France is an ideal community for Impressionist painters who prized light in their paintings. These Nice paintings are not as well known as Matisse’s other works, wherein he combined old and new favorite subject matters and styles (Watkins, 1987, p.273). Organizers of Matisse’s Early Nice Period exhibits asserted that these works must be celebrated on their because they reflect Matisse’s transition from monumental and modern methods of work to more traditional and popularly-liked styles (Watkins, 1987, p.273). He still worked on the Impressionist style, which is characterized with bright colors and emphasis on light. Matisse focused on his usual subject matters and components of female models, secluded interiors, flowers, and light; though he incorporated more of the odalisque, a term for Harlem slaves or concubines (Rewald & Debrowski, 2009, p.102). He focused on the subject matters of women who are in stages of dress and undress with Oriental clothing or exotic robes and in light-suffused studios (Rewald & Debrowski, 2009, p.102). Watkins (1987) illustrated the development of Matisse’s thinking and artwork during the Early Nice Period. He noted that Matisse’s works showed how complex human-human and human-material relationships influenced him. Some of these relationships are between the artist and the model, between the personal and moods of the model and her changing character on the canvas, and between the model and her setting and the objects on and around her (Watkins, 1987, p.273). Matisse’s Nice paintings could be seen as his response to his own paintings, especially those works where the painter and the model are both in them (Watkins, 1987, p.273). These paintings and other works demonstrate, furthermore, Matisse’s elementary interest in the model. He said in 1908: What interests me most is neither still life nor landscape, but the human figure. It is that which best permits me to express my almost religious awe towards life. I do not insist upon all the details of the face, on setting them down one-by-one with anatomical exactitude. (Rewald & Debrowski, 2009, p.102). His paintings, with or without overt Odalisque elements (e.g. use of boldly-patterned wallpaper and African or Muslim fabrics and designs), emphasize his interest on the human form, especially, the female form (Dabrowski, 2004). His paintings are his way of learning about life through painting about life. The Subject Matter of Matisse’s (1924) The Three O Clock Sitting The subject matter of Matisse’s (1924) The Three O Clock Sitting is Henriette Darricarrère. She is both the woman before the easel and the model (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d.). Darricarrère is a well-known musician and ballerina. She developed stage fright that was so extreme that she left her career of performing arts to be a model and artist in visual arts (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d.). Matisse taught her to paint during the Nice Period and he was teaching her when he painted The Three O Clock Sitting. In addition, as Matisse’s main model, Darricarrère posed as the odalisque, her color bronzed or browned. She was often in oriental costumes and she was either dressing or undressing, and in different positions, such as standing, seating, and reclining (Dabrowski, 2004). In The Three O Clock Sitting, Darricarrère is the painter who is sitting and the model who is standing, and both are in bright, southern sunlight colors with a background of decorative patterns (Dabrowski, 2004). On the left side of the canvas, the model looks serious and shapeless in her printed dress, her reflection on the mirror beside her. The same mirror reflects the model who looks like a sculpture in her lithe body with a white drapery. Analysis of The Three O Clock Sitting The setting merges Nice’s sunny weather and Matisse’s odalisque obsession (Watkins, 1987, p.273). The setting of the painting is a brightly-sunlit studio. It reflects the sunny atmosphere of Nice. The window is open which lets in the sun and the humid winds from the ocean. The ocean is shown at the window with a part of a coconut tree at the left side and a boat with a white sail far beyond. One can almost feel the fresh ocean winds, smell the saltiness of the ocean, and feel and see Nice’s sunlight. In addition, the studio has a boldly-patterned-wallpapered wall that is also typical of Matisse’s paintings. Matisse loves distinctly-designed wallpapers and fabrics, with him being a fabric collector himself. The model stands on a podium that has a richly-patterned red cloth which has odalisque characteristics with its rich color and exotic design (Rewald & Debrowski, 2009, p.102). The painter is near a cabinet that has a mirror, which shows her and the model’s back, but not her painting. At the other side is another cabinet with a colorful red, yellow, and green pattern. The floor is in rich brownish-orange color. The model and the painter are different outside, but similar inside. The model looks “frumpish,” while the nude woman is on a raised podium, and, with a white drapery, she looks like a piece of “nobility and modesty in classical sculpture” (Steiner, 2010, p. 23). The two women’s heads on the mirror are reflections of each other: they are “in effect, a pair of models” (Steiner, 2010, p. 23). They represent the relationship between the artist and the model, which the painting problematizes when it makes the model both a model and an artist (Watkins, 1987, p.273). It could be a reversal of positions that captures the different ways of seeing the world (Vogel, 2008, p. 2). In the exterior, these women are very different. The painter is clothed, while the model is nude with a piece of cloth on her. The painter is brownish white, while the model has a bronze color. The painter is seated, while the model is standing in a seductive pose. On the outside, they are different, but inside, they are the same. They have the same intensity for their jobs. The painter looks intently into her work, while the model looks intently away, aware of her treatment as an object of the painting. The subject matter could be the painter and her viewpoint of the world. Conclusion Matisse’s (1924) The Three O Clock Sitting reflects the color and light of Impressionist style with odalisque and painter-model-relationship themes. The subject matter is a ballerina, who wants to be a painter and who is also a model. It conveys the divergences in viewpoints that come from different professions. Hence, it celebrates every work as fitting of intensity and curiosity and the complex relationship between painters and models that viewers may not easily understand. References Dabrowski, M. (2004). Henri Matisse (1869–1954). Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mati/hd_mati.htm Matisse, H. (1924). The three o clock sitting [Painting]. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/495585?=&imgno=0&tabname=online-resources Rewald, S., & Debrowski, M. (2009). Catalogue. In The American Matisse: The dealer, his artists, his collection (pp.26-144). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Russell, J. (1986, November 2). Art: Henri Matisse in Nice, 1916-1930, an exhibition at the National Gallery. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/02/arts/art-henri-matisse-in-nice-1916-1930-an-exhibition-at-the-national-gallery.html Steiner, W. (2010). The real real thing: The model in the mirror of art. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (no date). The three o clock sitting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Collection Online. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/495585?=&imgno=0&tabname=label Vogel, C. (2008, December 12). Whitney chooses biennial curators. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/arts/design/12voge.html?pagewanted%3Dall&_r=0 Watkins, N. (1987). Review: Matisse. The Early Years in Nice. Washington. The Burlington Magazine, 129(1009), 273-274. Read More