Blue act (memory of Biskra)
| Blue act (memory of Biskra) |
|---|
| Henri Matisse , 1907 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 92 × 140 cm |
| Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore
Link to the picture |
Blue Nude (Memory of Biskra) (French: Nu bleu: souvenir de Biskra ) is an oil painting from 1907 by Henri Matisse . The style of painting is attributed to Fauvism . It currently belongs to the Baltimore Museum of Art as part of the Cone Collection .
background
Matisse created the painting in Collioure after a trip to Algeria , shortly after a sculpture he was working on broke. The name Biskra in the title refers to a town in an Algerian oasis . He later completed the sculpture entitled Reclining I (Aurora) and implemented it in bronze.
The art collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein acquired the picture at an exhibition in the Salon des Indépendants in 1907, where it was perceived as disturbing and, for example, heavily criticized by Louis Vauxcelles . Words like “a universe of ugliness” were used for Matisse's work. The Steins had previously bought Matisse ' Femme au chapeau ( woman with hat ) and Joie de vivre (joie de vivre ) for their art salon at 27 rue de Fleurus in Paris .
After a publication in Alfred Stieglitz 's photo magazine Camera Work in 1912, Leo Stein loaned it to the Armory Show in New York in 1913 . The work also met with little approval in the USA, for example a copy of the picture was burned at the second Armory Show in Chicago . The Blue Nude came into the possession of the American art collector John Quinn and was acquired by Claribel Cone from his estate in 1926 at an open auction . After Cone's death, the painting was added to the Cone Collection.
description
The palm trees in the background, painted in warm colors, reflect the journey; they form a contrast to the cold color values of the lying female nude in the foreground, which - casting a shadow on the blue background - seems to express an unadorned raw power, excluding beauty and eroticism. The raised left arm encircles the head, while the right arm rests on the floor at an angle. The left, very muscular leg is laid over the right with a strong twist. The eyes in the mask-like, rigid face of the figure are averted from the viewer, her breasts, whose nipples are tinted in the reddish colors of the palm trees, are far apart.
The dominant, odalisque figure and the two-dimensional surroundings reflect Matisse's view: “It is the figure that interests me most, not the still life or the landscape. With her I can best, you could say, express my own religious feeling towards life. "
Gertrude Stein described the painting as follows:
“In this picture, Matisse is for the first time consciously realizing his intention to trace the lines of the human body in order to harmonize and simplify the painterly value of the unmixed colors, which he only used in conjunction with white. He uses this systematically twisted drawing exactly as one uses dissonance in music , vinegar or lemon in the kitchen [...]. "
In 2005, Matisse's great-granddaughter, Sophie Matisse , created a variation on the painting under the title Blue Nude by alienating it with zebra-like stripes.
literature
- Volkmar Essers: Matisse . Taschen, Cologne 2006, ISBN 978-3-8228-6365-7
Web links
- The Cone Collection
- Tate : Matisse Picasso
- Comparison of sculpture and painting
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ursula von Kardorff: Adieu Paris. Forays into the bohemian city . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1993, ISBN 3-499-13159-5 , p. 33
- ^ Dan Franck / Cynthia Liebow: Bohemian Paris: Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse and the Birth of Modern Art . Grove Press, New York, 1998, p. 98, accessed March 17, 2010 .
- ↑ Ellen B. Hirschland: The Cone Sisters and the Stein Family , in Museum of Modern Art (ed.): Four Americans in Paris , 1970, p. 80
- ^ Volkmar Essers: Matisse . P. 18 ff
- ↑ Volkmar Essers: Matisse , p. 20
- ^ Sophie Matisse's version of the painting entitled Blue Nude from 2005 on artnet
