Formal Analysis- Henri Matisse "Interior at Nice"

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        Henri Matisse’s painting titled Interior at Nice depicts a room in a naturalistic yet unnaturalistic manner through techniques of space and mass, and the use of color.  This painting depicts the inside of a hotel room that contains objects such as a chair and vanity table, and a female figure that is sitting on the balcony.  The balcony in the painting overlooks an ocean; however, the female figure sits facing towards the interior of the room.  The figures and objects depicted in the painting are representational since they can be identified with the real world, which add to the painting’s naturalistic quality.  However, the painting is unaturalistic since the figures and objects simplified and stylized.  Matisse’s use of different perspectives in the painting such as bird’s eye view and intuitive perspective contribute to the painting’s unnaturalistic elements, while the use of warm and cool colors contribute to the naturalistic elements of the painting.  With the use of different techniques of space and mass combined with the use of color help create Interior at Nice to be a naturalistic and unnaturalistic painting.

In Interior at Nice, the ground plane is broken up in a naturalistic manner into three different grounds known as the foreground, the middle ground, and the background.  The ground plane is the area around and between the figures and objects in the painting.  Figures and objects in the foreground appear closer to the viewer because they are larger in size than those in the middle ground or background.  In the middle ground or background figures and objects are smaller and therefore appear farther away.  This technique in which the size of the figures and objects corresponds to their position within the picture plane is known as diminution.  As a result, the chair and vanity table in the foreground are larger and thus appear closer to the viewer.  The female figure is in the middle ground is smaller than the table and chair inside the hotel room and thus appears farther from the viewer.  The ocean and the sky make up the background. These would be examples of diminution, which is typically used in linear perspective.  Linear perspective is a technique in which all parallel lines converge to one or two vanishing points that are located reference to eye level of the viewer, also known as the horizon line.  This type of perspective is not used in an Interior at Nice; instead Matisse uses less naturalistic perspectives in his paintings.  

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        Matisse painted Interior at Nice using two unnaturalistic perspectives to enhance the space within the painting.  One perspective used is bird’s eye view, which is technique that depicts the figures and objects as if the viewer was directly above looking down upon them.  An example of bird’s eye view from the painting would be the chair in front of the vanity table.  It creates the illusion that the viewer is right above the chair looking down at it.  The floor is also painted in bird’s eye view and creates the illusion that the floor is tilting up rather than being flat. ...

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