Andy talks on Henri Matisse: Decorative figure in an Oriental Setting (1925)

Full details of the work – artist, title, year, medium, dimensions

• Artist : Henri Matisse
• Title: Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground / Decorative Figure in an Oriental Setting
• Year : Late 1925 - Spring 1926
• Dimensions : 51 1/8 x 38 5/8 in. (130 x 98 cm)
• Medium Oil on canvas
• Location Musee National d' Art Moderne (Museum of Modern Art), George Pompidou Center, Paris

l   An explanation of how the work fits into a broader style or movement (eg Realism) and the specific historical context (eg the mid 19th century in France).

•    Fauvism is only a short art movement (end 1800’s – 1909), “Fauve” in France words les Fauves means “wild beast”. The two main characteristics of Fauvist paintings are simplified drawing and exaggerated color. However the painting “Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground” was painted on 1925-1926, that means after the end of Fauvism (1909). Although in theoretically, it is not a painting during the Fauvism period, the main characteristics of Fauvist paintings are acceded to the painting, “Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground”.

•    The simplified drawing can be found in Matisse painting, “Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground”, the detail of the nude woman body figure are depicted with lines and color. The idea of three dimensional spaces in paintings has been rejected; the nude woman body figure becomes a flat planes and sheet like form. This two dimensional surface of intense colors and vigorous brush-marks is dissolving the figure into the background; it is breaking down the difference between figure and ground. He has eliminated the detail in favor of the predominance of color. The picture plane, shading, modeling and perspective are subordinate to color.

•    The constructed, vivid and exaggerated color including pure blue, red, yellow and green was used in the painting “Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground”. Matisse believed that the color should be used for its expressive potential, spiritual quality and the artist's feelings about a subject, rather than simply to describe what it looks like which are influenced by Paul Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin.

l   A description of the work

n   Matisse has changed his style into exoticism which was influenced by the artistic form of North Africa after he travelled to Morocco around 1906. Moreover, after World War I, Matisse relocated to Nice, a suburb of French, during the 1920s. His work was then follow the relocation shows a relaxation and a softening of his approach. All these influence can be found in the work “Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground”. This work was created as an Arabic world. An Odalisque was placed at the centre and Odalisques’ were the most popular subject of Matisse's Nice period. He depicted the odalisque with a cylindrical neck, circular breasts, triangular side and rectangular thigh. She placed against a decorative background of richly patterned fabrics and oriental rugs and surrounded by oriental accessories. The oriental background is crowded with colorful and linear energy. This energy is created by the curvilinear biomorphic form, and the line with musical rhythm. The energetic background is contrast to the massive and block like women (Adams, 2002).

n   In general, “the two-dimensionality of the picture surface enriched by decorative patterns taken from wallpapers, Oriental carpets, and fabrics; the human figures being treated in the same manner as the decorative elements”(Allpaintings Art Portal 2009). In detail, the shape of the Odalisque is being distorted; her back is vertical and perpendicular to the floor, and the floor is tilted, this makes the resting pose become unusual and straight. Her face looks like an oriental mask. The figure is simplified by the lines and the body is being flattened. Furthermore the blurred finger of her left arm is inherited the Impressionistic style.

n   The orange on the foreground and the linear perspective of the background also contain some shadow of post-impressionistic style from Cezanne, “Still life with Apples and Oranges”. The multiple viewpoints approach has been used. First, the focal point can be say as the head of the central figure, the nude odalisque, with a pyramid of triangle composition by using her cloth on the right hand side on the painting to balance the left. The view to the focal point is horizontal; however the view of the orange on the foreground is from the top of the orange. The tilted floor is from bottom right corner to the middle left, but at the end of the floor is distorted or covers or blurred by the flowerpot, the foot and the finger. The border of the wall is disappeared. It let the wall does not match the tilted floor. Also the Orange arabesques frame the blue shapes on the wall create a down force movement is contrast to the uprising movement of the tilted floor. This momentum gives us a distortion of infinity to the left; it also reinforces the contrast with the serene woman at the centre.

l   One key quote about the work in question

n   "The Odalisques were the bounty of a happy nostalgia, a lovely, vivid dream, and the almost ecstatic, enchanted days and nights of the Moroccan climate. I felt an irresistible need to express that ecstasy, that divine unconcern, in corresponding colored rhythms, rhythms of sunny and lavish figures and colors." Matisse (quoted in J. Flam, ed., Matisse: A Retrospective, New York, 1988)

l   Why this work interests you/ your own opinion of the work

n   At the beginning, I am interested in his work “The Dessert: Harmony in red”, because Matisse used a bright red and contrast with the green to print it. If we look at a plane of red color and the green color for a long time, it will make our eye feel tired or uncomfortable. However in his printing the balance of the color created a harmonious sense. Unlike the painting “The Night Café” which painted by Van Gogh, it also make use of the unusual color, red, green and additional yellow (brown) color, however the effect is very different from the Matisse work. “The Night Café” gives me a sense of uncomfortable and it feel like everything is collapsing. So this brings my attention to Matisse work. Secondly, I am interested in color and curve lines. In Matisse works, there are a lot of lines and full of color, especially in “Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground” and “The Dessert: Harmony in red”. His lines contain energy, it like our Chinese tradition philosophy of “Qi” or “Chi”, it represents life and energy. Lastly, after my study of Matisse works, I am so surprised that “Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground” is very different from his Odalisque series. It is because in the Odalisque series, the Odalisques were depicted as luxury and sexuality, poetry and desire, relaxation and passion, but in “Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground”, the nude Odalisque was rigid and unattractive, so that there is no exotic concern in the painting. It makes us focus on the wall and the Oriental Setting instead of the nude body; it is really impressing me a lot.

l   Names of authors, titles of articles, books or websites (and publication information) that are especially relevant to this work

Adam, Mary. Cezanne, Composition of Still Life with Apples and Oranges. 5 2005. http://maryadamart.com/cezanne_essay.htm (accessed 3 13, 2011).

Adams, Laurie Schneider. Art across time / Laurie Schneider Adams. Boston: Mass. : McGraw Hill College, 2002.

Allpaintings Art Portal. Henri Matisse :: Fauvism :: Allpaintings Art Portal. 2009. http://www.allpaintings.org/v/Fauvism/Henri+Matisse/?g2_page=9 (accessed 3 15, 2011).

Art lessons from Artfactory. Fauvism - a new approach to color in art. 2011. http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/fauvism.htm (accessed 3 13, 2011).

Driscoll, Kevin. Weaving a New Appreciation for Matisse. 7 6, 2005. http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=235581&rel_no=1 (accessed 3 13, 2011).

Encyclopedia of World Biography. Henri Matisse Biography - life, family, childhood, children, wife, school, mother, book, inform. 2011. http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ma-Mo/Matisse-Henri.html (accessed 3 13, 2011).

Kiama Art Gallery. Matisse. http://www.kiamaartgallery.com.au/chagall_5.html (accessed 3 13, 2011).

MoodBook.com. Henri Matisse. Simply painting and color. http://www.moodbook.com/history/modernism/henri-matisse-art.html (accessed 3 14, 2011).

North Carolina Museum of Art . Lesson Plans - Works of Art Lesson 9. 2004. http://www.ncmoa.org/matisse/lessons/works/works_of_art9.html (accessed 3 13, 2011).

Radford University. Matisse: pictorial reality. http://www.radford.edu/~rbarris/art428/Matisse%20and%20fauvism.html#II. Matisse: Pictorial Reality as the Subject of (accessed 3 13, 2011).

Steinert, John. Henri Matisse (1868-1954) | L'Odalisque, harmonie bleue | Impressionist & Modern Art Auction</li> | 20th Century, Paintings | Christie's. 2007. http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4983590 (accessed 3 13, 2011).

Wikipedia contributors . Fauvism. 3 1, 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fauvism&oldid=416587377 (accessed 3 14, 2011).

l   A thought-provoking question about the work for the class

n   Compare with Paul Gauguin painting of the Odalisques, the subject matter and the background are almost the same (also in a Oriental and exotic sense, and also depict a nude Odalisques), do you think that they are really the same or they are different?