The Piano Lesson (Matisse)

Last updated
The Piano Lesson [1]
Artist Henri Matisse
Year1916
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions245.11 cm× 212.725 cm(96.50 in× 83.750 in)
Location The Museum of Modern Art, New York

The Piano Lesson depicts the living room of Henri Matisse 's home in Issy-les-Moulineaux, with his younger son, Pierre, at the piano, the artist's sculpture Decorative Figure (1908), at bottom left, and, at upper right, his painting Woman on a High Stool . Matisse began with a naturalistic drawing, but he eliminated detail as he worked, scraping down areas and rebuilding them broad fields of color. The painting evokes a specific moment in time—light suddenly turned on in a darkening interior—by the triangle of shadow on the boy's face and the rhyming green triangle of light falling on the garden. The artist's incising on the window frame and stippling on the left side produce a pitted quality that suggests the eroding effects of light or time, a theme reiterated by the presence of the metronome and burning candle on the piano. [2]

This painting, The Moroccans (1915), and Bathers by a River (1909–10, May–November 1913, and early spring 1916–October (?) 1917 [3] ) were all painted at the time of the Battle of Verdun. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georges Braque</span> French painter and sculptor (1882–1963)

Georges Braque was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he played in the development of Cubism. Braque's work between 1908 and 1912 is closely associated with that of his colleague Pablo Picasso. Their respective Cubist works were indistinguishable for many years, yet the quiet nature of Braque was partially eclipsed by the fame and notoriety of Picasso.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cubism</span> Early-20th-century avant-garde art movement

Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related artistic movements in music, literature, and architecture. In Cubist works of art, the subjects are analyzed, broken up, and reassembled in an abstract form—instead of depicting objects from a single perspective, the artist depicts the subject from multiple perspectives to represent the subject in a greater context. Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century. The term cubism is broadly associated with a variety of artworks produced in Paris or near Paris (Puteaux) during the 1910s and throughout the 1920s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Matisse</span> French artist (1869–1954)

Henri Émile Benoît Matisse was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso, as one of the artists who best helped to define the revolutionary developments in the visual arts throughout the opening decades of the twentieth century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Modern Art</span> Art museum in New York City, U.S.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The institution was conceived in 1929 by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss, and Mary Quinn Sullivan. Initially located in the Heckscher Building on Fifth Avenue, it opened just days after the Wall Street Crash. The museum, America's first devoted exclusively to modern art, was led by A. Conger Goodyear as president and Abby Rockefeller as treasurer, with Alfred H. Barr Jr. as its first director. Under Barr's leadership, the museum's collection rapidly expanded, beginning with an inaugural exhibition of works by European modernists. Despite financial challenges, including opposition from John D. Rockefeller Jr., the museum moved to several temporary locations in its early years, and John D. Rockefeller Jr. eventually donated the land for its permanent site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Rousseau</span> French painter

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French post-impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier, a humorous description of his occupation as a toll and tax collector. He started painting seriously in his early forties; by age 49, he retired from his job to work on his art full-time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abby Aldrich Rockefeller</span> American socialite and philanthropist (1874–1948)

Abigail Greene Aldrich Rockefeller was an American socialite and philanthropist. She was a prominent member of the Rockefeller family through her marriage to financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr., the son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller Sr. Her father was Nelson W. Aldrich, who served as a Senator from Rhode Island. Rockefeller was known for being the driving force behind the establishment of the Museum of Modern Art. She was the mother of Nelson Rockefeller, who served as the 41st Vice President of the United States.

<i>Les Demoiselles dAvignon</i> 1907 painting by Pablo Picasso

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is a large oil painting created in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, it portrays five nude female prostitutes in a brothel on Carrer d'Avinyó, a street in Barcelona, Spain. The figures are confrontational and not conventionally feminine, being rendered with angular and disjointed body shapes, some to a menacing degree. The far left figure exhibits facial features and dress of Egyptian or southern Asian style. The two adjacent figures are in an Iberian style of Picasso's Spain, while the two on the right have African mask-like features. Picasso said the ethnic primitivism evoked in these masks moved him to "liberate an utterly original artistic style of compelling, even savage force” leading him to add a shamanistic aspect to his project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Picasso's African Period</span> Painting series by Pablo Picasso

Picasso's African Period, which lasted from 1906 to 1909, was the period when Pablo Picasso painted in a style which was strongly influenced by African sculpture, particularly traditional African masks and art of ancient Egypt, in addition to non-African influences including Iberian sculpture, and the art of Paul Cézanne and El Greco. This proto-Cubist period following Picasso's Blue Period and Rose Period has also been called the Negro Period, or Black Period. Picasso collected and drew inspiration from African art during this period, but also for many years after it.

<i>Dance</i> (Matisse) 1910 painting made by Henri Matisse

Dance (La Danse) is a painting made by Henri Matisse in 1910, at the request of Russian businessman and art collector Sergei Shchukin, who bequeathed the large decorative panel to the Hermitage Museum, in Saint Petersburg. The composition of dancing figures is commonly recognized as "a key point of (Matisse's) career and in the development of modern painting". A preliminary version of the work, sketched by Matisse in 1909 as a study for the work, resides at MoMA in New York, where it has been labeled Dance (I).

<i>Blue Nudes</i> Lithographs by Henri Matisse

The Blue Nudes is a series of collages, and related color lithographs, by Henri Matisse, made from paper cut-outs depicting nude figures in various positions. Restricted by his physical condition after his surgery for stomach cancer, Matisse began creating art by cutting and painting sheets of paper by hand; these Matisse viewed as independent artworks in their own right. The Blue Nudes refers also to the editioned multiples based on the cut-outs. Matisse supervised the creation of these lithographs until his death in 1954.

<i>The Red Studio</i> Painting by Henri Matisse

The Red Studio is an oil on canvas painting by French artist Henri Matisse from 1911. It is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herman Rose</span> American painter and artist.

Herman Rose was the professional pseudonym of Herman Rappaport, an American painter and artist. He was best known for his depictions of cityscapes, including his painting "74th Street Rooftops From Studio."

<i>Woman on a High Stool</i> Painting by Henri Matisse

Woman on a High Stool is an oil painting on canvas by the French artist Henri Matisse from early 1914. It is held in the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fauvism</span> Artistic style

Fauvism is a style of painting and an art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of les Fauves, a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. While Fauvism as a style began around 1904 and continued beyond 1910, the movement as such lasted only a few years, 1905–1908, and had three exhibitions. The leaders of the movement were André Derain and Henri Matisse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lillie P. Bliss</span> American art collector and patron

Lizzie Plummer Bliss, known as Lillie P. Bliss, was an American art collector and patron. At the beginning of the 20th century, she was one of the leading collectors of modern art in New York. One of the lenders to the landmark Armory Show in 1913, she also contributed to other exhibitions concerned with raising public awareness of modern art. In 1929, she played an essential role in the founding of the Museum of Modern Art. After her death, 150 works of art from her collection served as a foundation to the museum and formed the basis of the in-house collection. These included works by artists such as Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani.

The Music Lesson is a 1917 oil painting by Henri Matisse. It is on display at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proto-Cubism</span> Phase in art history

Proto-Cubism is an intermediary transition phase in the history of art chronologically extending from 1906 to 1910. Evidence suggests that the production of proto-Cubist paintings resulted from a wide-ranging series of experiments, circumstances, influences and conditions, rather than from one isolated static event, trajectory, artist or discourse. With its roots stemming from at least the late 19th century, this period is characterized by a move towards the radical geometrization of form and a reduction or limitation of the color palette. It is essentially the first experimental and exploratory phase of an art movement that would become altogether more extreme, known from the spring of 1911 as Cubism.

Bathers by a River, also known as Bathers at the River and occasionally referred to as simply Bathers, is a large 1917 oil-on-canvas painting by French artist Henri Matisse. Matisse began painting the canvas in 1909 and finished the painting in the fall of 1917, making it one of three pictures he painted during the Battle of Verdun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Matisse and goldfish</span>

French visual artist Henri Matisse was known for his use of color and draughtsmanship. In the early 20th century, Matisse became a leader of the Fauvism art movement, which was an early movement in the broader Post-impressionist era.

References

  1. Getlein, Mark. "Chapter 2 / Art and Meaning / Photo 2.24." Living with Art. 8th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill, 2008. Print.
  2. "MoMA | The Collection | Henri Matisse. The Piano Lesson." MoMA | The Museum of Modern Art. The Museum of Modern Art. Web. 15 June 2011. <http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=78908>.
  3. "Bathers by a River". Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  4. Spurling, Hillary (2005). Matisse the Master: a life of Henri Matisse: volume two, 1909-1954. London: Penguin Books. p. 184. ISBN   9780241133392.