Henri Matisse - the green line

Authors Avatar

Green Stripe (Madame Matisse)

 1905; Oil and tempera on canvas, 40.5 x 32.5 cm (15 7/8 x 12 7/8 in); Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen

Henry Matisse was probably the more outstanding contributors to the Fauvist movement. He also was the artist that carried most interest to it and his associates. One of his most famous pieces was Madame Matisse: The Green stripe. It provides an exceptional illustration of his artistic aspiration, which was primarily the bold application of colour to communicate and convey human emotions.  The composition in question is comprised of a portrait in the foreground of Madame Matisse and a background explicitly separated into several apparent regions of colour. This explicit division in the background is evident in the concurrence of the orange, pale purple and blue green, with the foreground of the portrait being ‘dichotomised’ mainly by the green line itself. The stripe runs down the middle of the face of Madam Matisse and hence the composition is split in accordance with an almost perpendicular axis. Both the background and foreground, nevertheless, are portrayed as being more or less entirely two dimensional. A main consequence of this is that the fore- and backgrounds appear to incorporate one another, and Madame Matisse gives the impression to becoming a slight recognition of a portrait within a portrait. The space in the portrait is relatively flat, accompanied only by a subtle allusion of depth which is exemplified by the dark area of shading above the subject’s left shoulder. The perspective of the composition is wholly anterior, as her torso is slanting to the left complimented by her head, tilted vaguely to the right.

Join now!

Colour is the focal point and primary element of painting. The artist has employed a bold use of colour here to convey a sense of the emotions he feels for his wife. These kinds of tones are quite vivid and voluminous; orange, red, yellow, light purple and bright green. These colours are juxtaposed by the use of a cooler, more insipid black and bluish-green. The amalgamation of these colours is rendered, in a sense synthetic and depicts an evocative contrast that is effortlessly perceptible to the viewer. Moreover there is a tangible sense of emotion incorporated into this evocative ...

This is a preview of the whole essay