Museum Report The Aspects Of Matisse’s Avant-garde Style

Museum Report: Blue Nude
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October 9, 2017
Upon going to the (name of the museum) last (date of visit), me and my colleagues was able to lay our eyes upon the “Blue Nude” by Henri Matisse. This piece was painted in 1907 and was an oil in canvass piece and portrays a woman which is lying nude on a background of grass and bushes. She is also painted with her one leg over the other and with one of her arms flexed towards her head. While this piece shows a very interesting piece of scenery and artwork, what is most captivating is the brush strokes and the other techniques which are used in the artwork. More specifically, the painter used a somewhat “sketchy art style” with a very think black lining in the woman's body. The shading also shows some transitions and differences in between them, with the inner side of her breast and the thighs, which is believed to be a crude way to portray shadows but emphasize the rudimentary style utilized in the painting. In relation to categories of classical art, this painting of Matisse could be regarded as avant-garde since, in the academy, most painters are taught to emphasize smooth lines in paintings and drawings alike, as its finishing touch. More specifically, this utilization of smooth lines is a technique which is taught during the advent of realism in by the 1850s, which have remained steadfast when this piece of art was painted. Aside from this, I also noticed that the painter has not limited himself from simply opposing the methods of realism by using “sketchy lines”, rather Matisse also used a more unconventional way of painting the limbs of the woman, which is a little bit contorted and disfigured. This is more noticeable in the woman’s left hand where the fingers are not painted individually, but rather with a crude stroke of a brush.
However, the aspects of Matisse’s avant-garde style does not end there, based on the drawing it could be seen that even muscles and the curves of the main subject were painted in a way where it shows a rough and developed musculature as compared to the tradition of those days in which women are portrayed in nude paintings as soft, smooth, flawless, and even almost immaculate in nature. However, what strikes me the most is the fact that the woman is painted in a background of bushes, which is more refined than the main subject itself. By focusing one’s attention on the background of the painting, it is easily noticeable how the bushes and the plants are painted in better detail relative to ...