La Bonheur de Vivre, 1904-1905, oil on canvas.  Henri Matisse, 1869-1954.  The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

 

 

In my late-Empire, British education under the guidance of the puritanical Plymouth Brethren, I was taught that if something was not in a book, it did not exist.   Or that it was not worthy of literary inclusion.  And that the Bible, the primary instruction of life, is to be read literally and not metaphorically.

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of Matisse’s imaginary landscapes based on that of  Collioure. 

Art historians have also described in it the influence of Watteau, Poussin, Persian miniatures, Japanese woodcuts and 19th century Orientalist images of harems.

 

 

Standing Odalisque Reflected in a Mirror, 1923, oil on canvas. 

Henri Matisse, 1869, 1954, French.  Baltimore Museum of Art

 

 

 

 

Odalisque, 1853, salted paper print and detail (with light interference). 

Felix Jacques Moulin, 1802-1879.

Loaned by the Département des estampes et de la photographie de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris to to the Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, NY in 2018/19. 

 

 

 

La Bonheur de Vivre, 1904-1905, oil on canvas. 

Henri Matisse, 1869-1954.  The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

 

 

This image was painted during the artist’s Fauve period.

Emotions are expressed in colours which do not reflect Nature accurately. 

Matisse was profoundly influenced by Paul Cézanne and this large image mimics the stage-like setting of Cezanne’s late work dedicated to bathers.

 

 

 

The Large Bathers, 1900-1906, oil on canvas.

Paul Cézanne, 1839-1906, French. Philadelphia Art Museum

 

Gertrude Stein and her brother, Leo Stein, bought this painting from Matisse shortly after he had completed it.  It was seen at the weekly salon in their Paris house by many artists.  A young Picasso took note and the influence of this painting is seen in his 1907 canvas, Demoiselles d’Avignon.

 

 

 

Dance 1, 1909, oil on canvas.

  Henri Matisse, 1869-1954, French. MOMA, NY

A study for a painting commissioned by the Russian Sergei Schukin now in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

This composition, with one additional figure, is at the heart of La Bonheur de Vivre.

 

 

The Puritan instructions of my youth were not useful for the discipline of practising the isness of life without which apprehension and fear of what might be around the corner creep frequently into our days.

 

Passing through stages of questioning, unravelling, discovery and enjoyment, I reached periodic experiences of the enjoyment of the is-ness of the created world both as it is and as it is represented in the arts. Periods which it is my life-long discipline to lengthen and deepen.

 

 

Leaving English shores for France.

France:  to the glories and skills of her painting and artisanal traditions, to the rigours, concision and discipline of her language and ways of thinking, to her practical traditions of the joie de vie, art de vivre and savoir faire of many of the pleasures of the is-ness of life.

 

 

Henri Matisse drawing the mural The Dance, at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, with a bamboo stick, 1931

 

 

I take care now to remember that there are words which are only fantasy. 

And that there are worlds which the word has yet to encompass; if ever they can.

 

 

Pierre Matisse’s completed mural,  1931, the Dance, at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

 

 

Dance 1, 1909, oil on canvas.

 Henri Matisse, 1869-1954, French. MOMA, NY

A study for a painting commissioned by the Russian Sergei Schukin now in the Hermitage.

 

 

Our sun, at length, will go supernova and become a brown star and the life and words of our species on this planet will be done. 

 

 

Pierre Matisse’s installed mural, the Dance, the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.

 

 

 

Until then on offer are la bonheur de vivre and invitations to delicious dances with Pierre Matisse, the Frenchman.

 

 

 

La Bonheur de Vivre, 1904-1905, oil on canvas. 

Henri Matisse, 1869-1954.  The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia