They Know How to Twinkle, Essay Example

These Two Plain Women of Matisse and da Vinci

Henri Matisse and Leonardo da Vinci share very little in the ways of their artistry- even though few people would deny how incredibly talented both men were. Matisse was a man at the crossroads of Impressionism and Modernism and even started his own movement based upon his ability to suffer and follow his gut. Da Vinci painted in the Renaissance era- when boring landscapes were normal, and men paid fortunes to paint their wives as if they were perfect angels who always dressed so carefully and looked so shy and submissive. For two French works which played with blurring and featured the portrait of a female model, the viewer might be amazed to see just how different the final pieces of art appear and how a certain mysterious something- a frozen twinkle in the eye- seems to link the spirit of these two works as complete equals.

Matisse and da Vinci remain in the same category only when discussing the caliber and fame of artists. Their art places them on par with each other- even though more people recognize the name of da Vinci and especially his Mona Lisa (approximately 1503). Of Matisse’s work, this paper will study a vibrant and critically oversimplified painting, Woman With a Hat (1905). Both of these works are said to be extremely personal—Matisse’s subject was his wife, and many theories suggest that da Vinci painted himself as a woman. Whether this theory is true or not, the fact that people continue to speculate about a painting made over 500 years ago shows just how important the painting is to the public- both in France and across the world.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa appears very plain at first sight. The palette of colors used pale in comparison to the idle wonder of the scenery in the painting’s background. Even under the plain colors of the palette and the prim way that her arms fold over each other, there is a hint of a smirk on her face, like a moment captured. The viewer could almost see a twinkle in her eyes which contrasts the ‘serious’ painting of the Renaissance period and of da Vinci’s own achievement in the arts and sciences. The mystery of this second side of Mona Lisa has not escaped notice, especially following the disappearance of the painting in August 1911. Some person walked out of the Louvre with the Mona Lisa smirk tucked in their arms and calmly started a whole new age of international appreciation for the painting when it was rediscovered in 1913- in a little apartment only blocks away from the museum which she was taken from. (“Theft of the Mona Lisa”) Through her years she would hang in palaces or palace storage rooms or in the appreciation of the Louvre.

Henri Matisse’s Woman with a Hat strikes the viewer at once. With a bold set of colors not typically seen in the portraits of that time period, Matisse combines the earlier influences of his art school heroes Manet and Cézanne with his unique take on the movement and life in color which he viewed while visiting Saint-Tropei. (Dabrowski) The painting’s subject is both clear and obscure at the same time, like a dream so detailed that it feels like a premonition. In interviews, Matisse often spoke about the difficulties of painting and preferred human subject because he felt less human in the process of creating art. He felt the piece and let it control him- a state which the critics and art world did not overlook. (Sturling) The shift in both color and the slightly-blurry appearance of the painting began an avant-garde art movement within the Impressionist height of popularity, a movement called Fauvism. Fauvism is from the word fauves– “wild beasts”, and some of the paintings that would follow Woman with a Hat definitely chase this wild, bright, unleashed side of Impressionistic art and feature strong strokes which finished telling the story began with color. (Dabrowski) Even her hat jumbles color and form in a fading pile of details that force the eye to look at the painting sideways or in a squint to see what lies beneath the first good look at the work. Still, the new style of Woman with a Hat ushered in a modern age which abandoned the traditional values of what great art consists of. Matisse himself told his daughter, Marguerite, that it was always “necessary to force your whole being beyond [surface likeness]…it is only then that you start to make discoveries, and tear yourself apart in the process.” (Spurling)

Da Vinci’s simple, mysterious woman freezes a moment but cannot stop time altogether. Through hundreds of years, the special varnish that Da Vinci added to the painting to protect and seal its details proved to darken the colors and wash many of them out, as though the woman is immortal and yet still aging. (“Theft of the Mona Lisa) This portrait might once have been full of color, especially in the rich natural twists of the background. We cannot know if da Vinci painted the dark colors in the painting’s early days, because he was also known to use many artistic techniques which blurred certain parts of the painting. He was particularly fond of using a technique called sfumato, blurring edges to create a shadow which sort of lingers in the viewers’ awareness.

Matisse’s painting packs a loud statement in its little size of 31 inches by 23 inches, especially when viewed next to the very careful detail and larger size of the Mona Lisa, which would not have been the same without the details that make its rediscovery more powerful. More space might not have helped Matisse. He filled his objective and used a new color, style, and feeling successfully, putting aside the typical rules of master artists in favor of a sort of artistic revolution of his own. Woman with a Hat is short, bold, and to the point.

The bold Henri Matisse spent his last healthy years in constant fear as the Nazis took up one country after another. He watched in fear and hoped that Hitler’s soldiers would not take up his beloved France and fled with one of his models after even his wife tired of how he would shut himself off and hide from his art and from the growing fear of Hitler. (Sturling) The bold colors, the life, the vigorous brush strokes of a young man had run their course years ago, and he gave way to the next generation of modern art- more receptive to the changes he saw everywhere. The Mona Lisa would also flee as Hitler approached, but this part of the painting’s history only increased the desire to know more about her history. The Curator of Paintings at the Louvre mourned the fame of Mona Lisa, saying that she hid in plain sight for so many years that she might not be fully appreciated again. After all, her every detail has been studied but the viewer rarely really sees her with open eyes. We already know what we should see in Mona Lisa. (“Theft of the Mona Lisa”) In this, both Matisse and da Vinci knew about fear, hiding from yourself, and capturing a person not as they look but as who they are.

Works Cited

“Theft of the Mona Lisa”. PBS. 2000. http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/mona_nav/main_monafrm.html.

Dabrowski, Magdalena. “Henri Matisse (1869–1954)”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mati/hd_mati.htm (October 2004).

Spurling, Hilary. “Matisse and His Models: The author of a new biography of the artist argues that the women he painted were full partners in the creative enterprise.” (October 2005). http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/matisse-and-his-models-70195044/#uvgL8K8QzF7JeHhy.99.