''Luxe, Calme et Volupté'' () is a 1904

oil paint Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. Oil paint also has practical advantages over other paints, mainly because it is waterproof. The earliest surviving ...

ing by the French artist

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

. Both foundational in the oeuvre of Matisse and a pivotal work in the history of art, ''Luxe, Calme et Volupté'' is considered the starting point of

Fauvism Fauvism ( ) is a style of painting and an art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of (, ''the wild beasts''), a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong col ...

.Henri Matisse, ''Luxe, Calme et Volupté'', Musée d'Orsay, Paris
/ref> This painting is a dynamic and vibrant work created early on in his career as a painter. It displays an evolution of the Neo-Impressionist style mixed with a new conceptual meaning based in fantasy and leisure that had not been seen in works before.

Background

Prior to the beginning of his Fauvist period Matisse had been formally educated in the arts and started his career copying works from old masters. His first original works resembled those from his education. After he left school, influence from Impressionism developed into his work and gradually led him to the Post-Impressionist movement where this style stuck with him until it evolved into Fauvism. Matisse frequently purchased works from artists such as Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin during his time before Fauvism that influenced his painting and the development of his style over time. ''Luxe, Calme et Volupté'' was painted by Matisse in 1904, after a summer spent working in St. Tropez on the

French Riviera The French Riviera, known in French as the (; , ; ), is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is considered to be the coastal area of the Alpes-Maritimes department, extending fr ...

alongside the Neo-Impressionist painters

Paul Signac Paul Victor Jules Signac ( , ; 11 November 1863 – 15 August 1935) was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, with Georges Seurat, helped develop the artistic technique Pointillism. Biography Paul-Victor-Jules Signac was born in Paris on ...

and

Henri-Edmond Cross Henri-Edmond Cross (; 20 May 1856 – 16 May 1910), born Henri-Edmond-Joseph Delacroix (), was a French painter and printmaker. He is most acclaimed as a master of Neo-Impressionism and he played an important role in shaping the second phase ...

. Signac purchased the work, which was exhibited in 1905 at the

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name i ...

. The painting's title comes from the poem ''L'Invitation au voyage'', from

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...

's volume ''

Les Fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; ) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. ''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First published in 1857, it was important in the ...

'' (''The Flowers of Evil''):

Style

The painting is Matisse's most important work in which he used the Divisionist technique advocated by Signac. Divisionism is created by individual dots of colors placed strategically on the canvas in order to appear blended from a distance; Matisse's variant of this style is created by numerous short dashes of color to develop the forms that are seen in the image. He first adopted the style after reading Signac's essay "D'Eugène Delacroix au Néo-impressionisme" in 1898. The simplification of form and details is a trademark of Fauvist landscapes in which artists intentionally created artificial structures that distorted the reality of images. Many of these same qualities can be found in Matisse's other works. Other Fauvist painters worked on large scale landscapes that did not focus as much on figures within the composition as with Matisse's works. File:Henri Matisse, 1904, Luxe, Calme et Volupté, oil on canvas, 98.5 × 118.5 cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou (detail lower center).jpg, Detail lower center File:Henri Matisse, 1904, Luxe, Calme et Volupté, oil on canvas, 98.5 × 118.5 cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou (detail lower left).jpg, Detail lower left

Interpretations

Scholars suggest that interpreting the paintings requires the viewer to acknowledge its resistance to interpretation. Matisse's previous works were all firmly rooted in the visual aspects of Post-Impression leading scholars to question how his work had taken such a drastic turn into a depiction of fantasy. David Carrier writes that the painting is ambiguous and lacks reference to any of its supposed sources of inspiration. Despite the literary source for the work's title, ''Luxe, Calme, et Volupté'', it is not related to the narrative or poem in any way.

History

*1905, in the collection of

, purchased from Matisse *Collection Ginette Signac, daughter of the artist *1982, accepted by the French state for ''Les Musées Nationaux'' (11/02/1982) *1982 to 1985, attributed to the

Musée National d'Art Moderne The Musée National d'Art Moderne (; "National Museum of Modern Art") is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou. In 2021 it ranked 10th in the list of ...

, Paris *1985, moved to

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

Exhibitions

*Salon de la Société des artistes indépendants. 21st exhibition, Paris, France, 1905 *Henri Matisse, chapelle, peintures, dessins, sculptures, Paris, France, 1950 *Le Fauvisme, Paris, France, 1951 *Henri Matisse, New York, USA, 1951 *Henri Matisse, Cleveland, USA, 1952 *Henri Matisse, Chicago, USA, 1952 *Henri Matisse, San Francisco, USA, 1952 *Salon d'automne, Paris, France, 1955 *Henri Matisse, retrospective exhibition, Paris, 1956 *Cent chefs-d'oeuvre de l'art français, 1750–1950, Paris, 1957 *Les sources du XXème siècle - les arts en Europe de 1884 à 1914, Paris, 1960 *Les Fauves, Paris, 1962 *Le Fauvisme français et les débuts de l'Expressionnisme allemand, Paris, 1966 *Le Fauvisme français et les débuts de l'Expressionisme allemand, Munich, Germany, 1966 *Neo-Impressionism, New York, 1968 *Baudelaire, Paris, 1968 *Henri Matisse. Exposition du centenaire, Paris, 1970 *Henri Matisse, Zurich, Switzerland, 1982 *Henri Matisse, Düsseldorf, Germany, 1983 *De Manet à Matisse, 7 ans d'enrichissement au musée d'Orsay, Paris, 1990 *Le Fauvisme ou "l'épreuve du feu", éruption de la modernité en Europe, Paris, 1999 *1900, Paris, 2000 *Méditerranée - De Courbet à Matisse, Paris, 2000 *Le néo-impressionnisme de Seurat à Paul Klee, Paris, 2005

Bibliography

*Schneider, P., ''Matisse'', Paris, 1984 *Mathieu, Caroline, ''Guide du Musée d'Orsay'', Paris, 1986 * Laclotte, Michel, ''Le Musée d'Orsay'', Paris, 1986 *Compin, Isabelle - Lacambre, Geneviève - Roquebert, Anne, Musée d'Orsay. ''Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures'', Paris, 1990 *Lobstein Dominique, ''48/14 La revue du Musée d'Orsay'', no. 20, Paris, 2005 *Lobstein Dominique, ''Les Salons au XIXe siècle. Paris, capitale des arts'', Paris, 2006 *Cogeval Guy, ''Le Musée d'Orsay à 360 degrés'', Paris, 2013 *Monod-Fontaine, Isabelle, ''Matisse. La figura, Ferrare'', 2014

Notes

References

* * * * * *UCLA Art Council, Leymarie, J., Read, H. E., & Lieberman, W. S. (1966). ''Henri Matisse retrospective 1966''. Los Angeles: UCLA Art Gallery. *

External links

Henri Matisse, ''Luxe, Calme et Volupté'', Centre Pompidou, Paris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luxe, Calme et Volupte Paintings by Henri Matisse 1904 paintings Les Fleurs du mal in popular culture Paintings in the Musée d'Orsay Ships in art Food and drink paintings Fauvism