Woman with hat
| Femme au chapeau |
|---|
| Henri Matisse , 1905 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 81 × 60 cm |
| Museum of Modern Art, Haas Collection, San Francisco
Link to the picture |
Woman with Hat ( Femme au chapeau ) is a painting by Henri Matisse from 1905. It is said to depict his wife, Amélie Matisse. The first exhibition of the picture in the Paris Salon d'Automne gave rise to the concept of fauvism . Woman with Hat has been part of the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco since 1991.
meaning
Matisse exhibited the work he had just finished in 1905 together with the paintings of artist friends such as André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck in the Salon d'Automne. The strongly colored impression of her paintings aroused the displeasure of the public and art critics and led to a scandal. An attempt was even made to destroy the painting. Louis Vauxcelles let himself be carried away to the criticism " Donatello chez les fauves ..." ("Donatello with the wild beasts"); he was referring to a female bust by the sculptor Albert Marque in the middle of the exhibition room, which resembled a Renaissance sculpture. His commentary, published in Gil Blas on October 17, 1905 , coined the term “ Fauvism ”. Matisse's painting "Woman with Hat", the largest of his exhibited paintings, attracted particular criticism.
Madame Matisse is facing the viewer in three-quarter view; she wears an elaborate robe with a magnificent hat. There is no longer any hierarchy between figure and surrounding space, everything is synonymous and of equal value, is inserted into the overall rhythm through the sequence of colored areas, based on the example of Cézanne's watercolors . After a processing phase of the occidental tradition, Matisse returns in spirit to Byzantium, to the deeper sources of color.
Despite the criticism, the picture was sold. Gertrude Stein's brother Leo bought it for 500 francs in the salon and in this way helped Matisse to become better known and increase its market value. In 1915, Sarah and Michael Stein bought it from Gertrude Stein for four thousand dollars after Leo Stein had left the common salon.
Web links
- Fauvism - Woman with a Hat (French)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Vauxcelles, Louis. [1] , Gil Blas, Supplement à Gil Blas du 17 October 1905, p.8, col.1, Salle VII (end). Retrieved from France Gallica, bibliothèque numérique (digital library), Bibliothèque Nationale, December 1, 2013.
- ^ Jean Leymarie: Fauvism ; Albert Skira Verlag, Genève, 1959, p. 83
- ↑ Stefana Sabin: Gertrude Stein . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1996, ISBN 3-499-50530-4 , p. 36
- ↑ Brenda Wineapple: Sister Brother Gertrude and Leo Stein . Arche, Zurich-Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-7160-2233-0 , p. 319
