The dance (painting)
| Dance I. |
|---|
| Henri Matisse , 1909 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 259.7 x 390.1 cm |
|
Museum of Modern Art , New York
Link to the picture |
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| Dance II |
|---|
| Henri Matisse , 1909/1910 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 260 × 391 cm |
| Collection of S. I. Shchukin Hermitage , St. Petersburg Link to the picture |
The Dance ( La Danse ) is a painting by Henri Matisse . Matisse painted two versions of the dance . The first version of the picture from 1909 is now on display in the Museum of Modern Art ( New York ). The second version from 1909/10 is in the Hermitage ( St. Petersburg ). In addition to the painting La Musique, it was commissioned for the Moscow businessman and art collector Sergei Shchukin .
Image composition and technology
The painting shows five women dancing naked on a hill. Matisse omitted further details. The joie de vivre and dynamism of the dance can already be found in the basic composition. The figures form a dynamic, oval circle. The clear and reduced structure contrasts with the restless hill, the course of the horizon and the movement of people. This reduced statement is reinforced by the rough depiction of the female nudes and the use of color. Matisse only uses the basic tones blue, yellow, red and black. He uses the "calm" colors green and blue for the background, the people are painted in the "aggressive" colors red and yellow. This creates a complementary contrast .
The original version of Dance I shows pink for the body instead of red, sky blue instead of ultramarine blue for the sky, and Veronese green instead of emerald green for the lawn.
Matisse did not use a spatial representation. Inward and hard shadows are completely absent and the colored areas are delimited with rough contour lines.
meaning
The dance is considered Matisse's most famous painting and a turning point in the artist's work. For a long time, contemporary critics opposed the work; today it is extremely popular because of its reduced and clear message.
motive
The round dance shown is a motif that can already be found in the picture Le bonheur de vivre ( Joy of Life ) from 1905/06, and which recurs periodically as a theme in Matisse's work. It goes back to an engraving from the end of the 16th century by Agostino Carracci with the title Reciproco Amore .
Mural The Dance
| The dance |
|---|
| Henri Matisse , 1932/33 |
| Wall decoration for the Barnes Foundation , Philadelphia
Link to the picture |
Under the same name, there is a large mural commissioned by Albert C. Barnes , a major modern art collector from Merion, Philadelphia , for the art gallery in his home. The mural took up the motif of the painting again in a modified form. There are three versions: Matisse was not satisfied with the first, the second was incorrect in the dimensions, the third version was installed in Merion in May 1933 and has been on display at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia since 2012 . In its simplicity, the composition shows women dancing in extremely strong movement in front of an abstract, almost geometric background on three panels, which reproduce a rhythmic wave movement. During the preparatory work for the mural, Matisse used a new process by assembling the composition from cut-out pieces of colored paper. With dimensions of 356.8 × 1432.5 cm, it is the largest mural that Matisse has ever painted. The first two versions are shown in the Musée d'art moderne in Paris.
literature
- Morozov and Shchukin - The Russian Collectors . Catalog of the exhibitions in the Museum Folkwang Essen 1993, in the Pushkin Museum Moscow and in the Hermitage St. Petersburg 1994. DuMont 1993; Pp. 422-430
- Dania Thomas: Henri Matisse: "The Dance" and "The Music". An art historical examination . VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2008, ISBN 978-3-8364-9561-5
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Volkmar Essers: Matisse , Taschen, Cologne 2006, ISBN 978-3-8228-6365-7
- ↑ Fig. Le bonheur de vivre
- ↑ Paradise in the studio in DER SPIEGEL 39/1992
- ↑ Will Gompertz: What's to see: 150 years of modern art at a glance . DuMont, Cologne 2013, p. 115
- ↑ Lawrence Gowing: Matisse , p. 152 f
- ↑ La Danse , mam.paris.fr, accessed on July 11, 2017
