Friday, December 12, 2008

The Friday Evening Nudes

Self-Portrait
Henri Matisse


Odalisque With Magnolias




Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground



Blue Nude



Nude Sitting in an Armchair


Odalisque With Red Culottes




Nude With Raised Arms
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13 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 12, 2008 at 7:54 PM

    What a nice array of nudes tonight! I love the blue nude and the nude in an arm chair.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 12, 2008 at 10:26 PM

    Because I'm too lazy to Google/Wiki it, what does "Odalisque" mean?

    ***

    These are very nice. I get the impression that Matisse neither overly-idolized, nor overly-(psycho)critiqued {cough} Picasso {cough} women.

    ReplyDelete
  3. CounterlightDecember 13, 2008 at 9:30 AM

    Odalisque is a fancy 19th century French word for a harem girl.

    Picasso did worse than psycho-critique his women, he tore them apart with his brush.

    Thanks for the Matisses!

    ReplyDelete
  4. billieDecember 13, 2008 at 10:49 AM

    i like his and picassos use of colors but the grotesquity (made up my own word) of the scenes are not for me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. DianneDecember 13, 2008 at 11:04 AM

    I love 'nude sitting in an armchair' - the colors are wonderful, all my favorites

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownDecember 13, 2008 at 11:54 AM

    I think what I like even better than the nudes themselves in these Matisse are the backgrounds: the patterns and details and colors. Delectable.

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownDecember 13, 2008 at 1:31 PM

    I like but don't love Picasso's nudes. I don't think he could help the way he looked at things; including women. I understand that he was some variety of misogynist? Or otherwise a surly old man? ;-)

    See...I try not to let those things get in the way of how I look at art. Maybe I should? That is a genuine question.

    ReplyDelete
  8. L'AdelaideDecember 13, 2008 at 4:18 PM

    well, I love the odalisque in the culottes...there is something there I relate to, although they are all wonderful...interesting comments too..always something new to learn...I too find picasso questionable but his gift is unquestionable...

    ReplyDelete
  9. UnknownDecember 13, 2008 at 5:01 PM

    I guess what I want to say about Picasso's women is that they were painted in the style that Picasso painted everything else during that Cubist period. I don't it's so much about the women themselves.

    But please differ if you wish. It's all interesting.

    Well put, Linda. An unquestionably gifted. Absolutely.

    ReplyDelete
  10. UnknownDecember 13, 2008 at 5:01 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Steve EmeryDecember 13, 2008 at 11:18 PM

    I like that very first self-portrait nude (grin) - Matisse as nude as I suspect he ever was when painting... Gotta wear a tie. He makes me feel very relaxed, which is hard to do.

    Actually I don't particularly like Matisse's nudes - nor Picasso's - and for somewhat the same reason. They don't seem to me to see women as whole beings. They appear more as an assembly of parts. The last nude in this series - Nude with Raised Arms - is something of an exception - and maybe the Nude with Red Culottes. Otherwise I get this feeling of disjointed chunks of female flesh, breasts that are over simplified to simple circles or globes, almost like the artificially enhanced women of our era. I apologize if I am tarnishing these for anyone, but they disappoint me, and I always get the feeling that Matisse didn't really know what to do with the ladies. Picasso was worse.

    Renoir seldom objectified his models, or their anatomy. They always seem to be real people - people he is fond of. And few artists have better understood how to paint the beauty of breasts reverently, without making them the subject of the painting.

    But back to Matisse and Picasso = the compositions, the backgrounds, the way they handled color and shape - I'm with Linda; there is no denying their gifts. I just find their handling of human beings off-putting. Other comments here hit it on the head.

    ReplyDelete
  12. UnknownDecember 14, 2008 at 2:56 AM

    Steve: The title Decorative Figure is sort of telling, as it is exactly that, a decoration. The others I like a lot. I'm a Matisse fan, for better or for worse. But I do see what you mean and why.

    As I said, the nudes themselves are just one part of the composition; which I love; they are not necessarily the essential part.

    ReplyDelete
  13. UnknownDecember 14, 2008 at 2:59 AM

    Steve: I gave you The Heart Mandala Award but I think you missed it. Scroll down.

    ReplyDelete

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