''Woman with a Hat'' (French: ''La femme au chapeau'') is a painting by

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prim ...

. An oil on canvas, it depicts Matisse's wife, Amelie. It was painted in 1905 and exhibited at the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

during the fall of the same year, along with works by

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. Biography Early years Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, Yvelines, Île-de-France, just outside Paris. In ...

, Maurice de Vlaminck and several other artists known as " Fauves".Henri Matisse, ''Femme au chapeau'' (''Woman with a Hat''), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
/ref> Critic Louis Vauxcelles, in comparing the paintings of Matisse and his associates with a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

-type sculpture that shared the room with them, used with the phrase "

Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Florence, he studied classical sculpture and used this to develop a complete Renaissance st ...

chez les fauves..."Vauxcelles, Louis

Gil Blas, Supplément à Gil Blas du 17 octobre 1905, p.8, col.1, Salle VII (end). Retrieved from France Gallica, bibliothèque numérique (digital library), Bibliothèque Nationale, 01 December 2013. (Donatello among the wild beasts).Chilver, Ian (Ed.)
"Fauvism"
The Oxford Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved from enotes.com, 26 December 2007. His comment was printed on 17 October 1905 in '' Gil Blas (periodical), Gil Blas'', a daily newspaper, and passed into popular usage. John Elderfield, The ''"Wild Beasts" Fauvism and Its Affinities,'' 1976,

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

, p.43, ''Woman with a Hat'' was at the center of the controversy that led to the term Fauvism. It was also a painting that marked a stylistic shift in the work of Matisse from the Divisionist brushstrokes of his earlier work to a more expressive style. Its loose brushwork and "unfinished" quality shocked viewers as much as its vivid, non-naturalistic colors. Although the Fauve works on display were condemned by many—"A pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public", declared the critic

Camille Mauclair Séverin Faust (December 29, 1872, Paris – April 23, 1945), better known by his pseudonym Camille Mauclair, was a French poet, novelist, biographer, travel writer, and art critic. Background Mauclair was a great admirer of Stéphane Mallarmé, ...

—they also gained some favorable attention. The painting that was singled out for attacks was Matisse's ''Woman with a Hat'', which was bought by Gertrude and Leo Stein for 500 francs:Stein, Gertrude.
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
', Chapter 3. this had a very positive effect on Matisse's morale, which had suffered with the bad reception of his work. Sarah Stein, the wife of Gertrude and Leo's elder brother Michael, claimed to have been the original purchaser of this painting, not Gertrude (Leo did not like the painting at first). One can see it in photographs of Sarah and Michael's home on Rue Madame. It was a centerpiece in Sarah's home in Palo Alto, California for many years. During the 1950s, in San Francisco, it was bought by the Haas family. In 1990 Elise S. Haas bequeathed thirty-seven paintings, sculptures and works on paper to the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, among them ''Femme au chapeau''.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woman With A Hat 1905 paintings Paintings by Henri Matisse Paintings in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Painting controversies Fauvism

See also

Notes and references