Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse was a French artist born on December 31st, 1869, in Nord, France. He was the oldest son of a prosperous grain merchant. In 1887, he went to Paris to study law, however it was in 1889 that he began to paint. His newfound love for painting was a result of a period of time where he was recovering from an attack of appendicitis, where his mother bought him art supplies to spend some time. He described it himself as a kind of paradise. Following that, he decided to devote himself to his art, even though it greatly disappointed his father.
In the painting, we see four individuals, two in the foreground and two in the background. The two individuals in the background are fully clothed, yet the two in the foreground appear to be naked. As a viewer, the more you look at the painting, it is quite easy to determine the mood of the overall painting. You can say that the painting is divided into two parts. The two in the background appear to be happy and in love, as seen by the way they are kissing one another. Whereas the individual in the front can be seen as being upset.
Music (Sketch) is an example of art influenced by Expressionism. Expressionism is known to be a way of art in which the subject is not about the external world, rather it conveys a message about the internal feelings and anxieties of the artist. Some key aspects of Expressionist art are heavy brushstrokes, distortion, and heavy colors. Those aspects can be seen in Matisse’s Music(Sketch). You can clearly see how Expressionism is represented in the art piece. The individual up front is a visual representation of the way the artist feels. You can get a sense of isolation, vulnerability, sadness, and shame just by looking at the individual who is on the floor.
Located in a back corner of the exhibit, the painting itself was very low-key. It isn’t what you would call a large piece either. It was one of those paintings that you could easily walk right past and wouldn’t notice it was there. However, as soon as I saw it, I immediately knew this was the painting that I wanted to use. What drew me to the piece was how easily I was able to make a connection with the pieces of literature that we read in class. I felt that the painting could be a visual representation of The Death of Ivan Ilych, The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock, or The Metamorphosis. All three stories focused on a character who felt isolated, alienated, afraid, and vulnerable. Thus, you could put any of those characters within the painting and it would still make sense.
The only question I would have for the painting is, why have the individual playing the violin naked as well? I understand why Matisse had the individual on the floor be naked, but not so sure as to why have the person playing the violin naked as well.