Painting Detail
Spanish Still LifeArtist: Henri Matisse
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 89.5x116.3 cm
Date: c. 1910/1911
Genre: Flowers, Still Life
Source: State Museum of New Western Art, Moscow, 1948
Working in a hotel room in Seville near the end of 1910, Matisse produced both this still work and "Seville Still Life" . Here, however, the composition reveals a new view of the familiar motif. The table and sofa have come nearer to the front of the canvas, forcing out the objects we saw in the foreground of "Seville Still Life". The areas of colour have become larger and more intense in tone, resulting in a change in the painting's ornamental rhythm.
A large, precise pattern covers the fabrics, particularly in the lower and middle parts of the painting. But this ornamental luxury is not absolute: the energetic drawing of the tablecloth and the attention-grabbing stylized fruits and flowers on the dark blue cloth cannot outdo the living charm of the flowering geranium and peppers on the table.