Analysis

This is my personal opinion about Henri Matisses’ Open Window, Collioure, and what I thought about the overall piece. Reflecting on if I thought was successfully done, and my personal preferences about his painting:

Henri Matisse was a great artist, but sadly people don’t live forever, because if they did the world would be full of great art from great artists. Particularly Henri Matisses’ Open Window, Collioure is one of my favorites pieces done by Matisse. After walking through the museum and viewing the art in person and then eventually digging deeper into the artwork. Learning about the movement the piece was inspired by, and the overall composition, this could pretty much be one of my favorite pieces of artwork to this day. This painting is very pleasing to the eye, it evokes happiness and calmness, and the colors work well together. I believe this painting was done very successfully, and the image depicts exactly what it is supposed to; an open window with a beautiful view of boats on the water. I believe the broad brushstrokes, choices of color, and texture of this painting works great with the image that is depicted. I do think that if this technique and color pallet was used in a different image or scene, it probably wouldn’t work as well. The image and the style makes the viewer feel like they are in this tropical, beautiful, place that is in France. I believe that the fact that Matisse never left France and did go to Collioure in the summer, helped the image succeed. If Matisse never went to Collioure this image wouldn’t look as great and correct, and maybe this image wouldn’t event exist. I really do believe everything happens for a reason and if it wasn’t for Collioure, France,  the Fauvism movement, Matisse, Picasso, and many other factors, the art world would probably be a lot different than it is today. I appreciate older styler of art rather than more modern, but this particular painting really opened by eye up to a new style and movement like Fauvism, and I am grateful I am able to accept new styles and ideas that come about every single day.  

Matisses’ painting in 1905 of the window in France was a very successful image, the colors and techniques he performed on this piece made it succeed so well. Personally I think using a broad brushstroke for the sailboats and the leafs on the plants worked very well. I think his method to making the plants very simplistic was a great idea, mainly because it is not hard to tell they are plants with a simple line, because as a viewer we can understand and our mind tells us they are plants, because of the colors and shapes. I think the colors and lines he used to depict the water and sky show us that he was trying to mimic a sunset or perhaps a sunrise. Either way, the simple yet thickness of colors and design of the Open Window are shown very successfully. These many reasons is the main reason why I choose this particular piece of art when we traveled to the National Gallery of art in Washington DC.