Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2017 Site Specific: The power of place
Matisse and the Golden Light of Collioure
Lorraine Kypiotis
26/27 July 2017
Lecture summary:
When Matisse first went to Collioure in 1905 he was intoxicated with the intense golden and he dashed off numerous small but scintillating works that sparkled brilliantly with pure colour. It was here, in the little Catalan Port Town, nestled between the mountains and the Mediterranean, that Fauvism was truly born. It was an astonishingly productive period, where Matisse, and later that Summer, Derain, produced sun filled paintings that would cause a sensation when exhibited at the Salon d’Automne a few months later.
Matisse wrote at the time: “Construction by coloured surfaces. Search for intensity of colour, subject matter being unimportant. Reaction against the diffusion of local tone in light. Light...expressed by a harmony of intensely coloured surfaces.”
Matisse touched upon the principle that would become the central tenet of Fauvism– that is, to paint not the object but the effect it produces. From now on he would seek light through the opposition of colours.
Slide list:
1. Matisse, Self-portrait (1906) oil on canvas. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen 2. Matisse, Open Window, Collioure, (1905) oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington 3. Derain, Vue de Collioure (1905) 4. Vlaminck, L’Etang de Saint Cucufa (1905) 5. Manguin, La Sieste (1905) 6. Cezanne, Les Trois Baigneuses (1879-82) 7. Paul Signac, Saint-Tropez, Sunset in the Pine Woods (1898) 8. Matisse, Le Goûter, Golfe de Saint-Tropez (1904) O/c. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen 9. Matisse, Luxe, Calme, Volupté (1904) Oil on Canvas. Musee d’Orsay 10. Matisse, Study for Le Port d’Abaill (1905) drawing
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11. Matisse, Le Port d’Abaill (1905) oil on canvas. 12. Matisse, Barques a Collioure (1905) drawing 13. Matisse, Bateaux a Collioure (1905) watercolour. Private collection 14. Matisse, The Red Beach (1905) Courtauld 15. Matisse, Interior at Collioure (1905) oil on canvas. Private Collection 16. Matisse, Portrait of Andre Derain (1905) oil on canvas. Tate 17. Matisse, Derain Painting (1905) pencil sketch 18. Matisse, Derain under the umbrella (1905) pencil sketch 19. Derain, Portrait of Matisse (1905) oil on canvas. Tate. 20. Matisse, La Japonaise: Femme au bord de l’eau Collioure, Summer (1905) Oil and pencil on canvas. MOMA 21. Derain, Matisse and his wife at Collioure (1905) ink on paper, Met. NY 22. Derain, Boats in the Port of Collioure (1905) oil on camvas. 23. Derain, Boats at Collioure (1905) oil on canvas. Kunstmuseum, Dusseldorf, Germany 24. Matisse, Vue de Collioure, L’Eglise (1905) oil 25. Derain, Le Phare de Collioure –Étè (1905) Oil on canvas. 26. Matisse, Les toits de Collioure (1905) Oil on canvas. Hermitage, St. Petersburg 27. Matisse, Landscape at Collioure (1905) oil on canvas. 28. Matisse, Promenade amongst the olive trees (1905) oil on canvas 29. Matisse, Femme au Chapeau (1905) Oil on canvas. San Francisco Museum of Art 30. Matisse, The Green Line (La Raie Verte) (1905) oil on canvas. Statens Museum, Copenhagen 31. Matisse, Port a Collioure (1905) Aquarelle. Baltimore Museum of Art. The Cone collection 32. Matisse, Blue Nude (1907) oil on canvas. Baltimore Museum of Art. The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland. 33. Matisse, Large Reclining Nude (1935) oil on canvas. Baltimore Museum of Art. The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland 34. Matisse, La Moulade (Collioure in the Summer) (1905) Oil on canvas. Private Collection 35. Matisse, La Moulade (1906) oil on canvas. SFMOMA 36. Matisse, Portrait of Marguerite (1906) oil on camvas. Musee Picasso 37. Henri, Amelie and Marguerite Matisse, Collioure (1906) Photo. 38. Matisse, Le Bonheur de Vivre (The Joy of Life) 1905-6 Oil on canvas. Philadelphia, PA 39. Matisse, Landscape near Collioure (study for Le Bonheur de Vivre) 1905 40. Matisse, Sketch for Le Bonheur de Vivre (1905-6) Oil on canvas. SFMOMA 41. Matisse, Pink Onions (1906)oil on canvas. 42. Matisse, Les Aloes, Collioure (1907) oil on canvas. For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/site-specific/