In 1915 Matisse, at the age of 45, painted his variation on Jan de Heem’s “A Table of Desserts.” The Dutch still life, 80 inches long, depicts heaps of fruit and pies on an enormous table, accompanied by a lute and decorative objects, in front of some architectural structures that are partly obscured by, what else, a swath of red-maroon drapery. The image is a fantastic, exuberant invention. You can say those grapes are so realistically painted, they make your moth water. Not to mention that gashed-open pie. Imagine standing in front of this huge painting, being entranced by its realism.
Now shake your head and tell yourself to wake up. This is not realism. Every object in this painting is painted to seduce you into thinking it’s real, but the whole pile of stuff, wall to wall, is assembled in the most contrived way. Ask yourself what it would take to construct this scene out of three-dimensional material.
So, it’s not realism. It’s a construction. And all the more wonderful for being an invention! That was 1640.
Now in 1915 Matisse sees this painting at the Louvre and feels so drawn to it that he has to do his own riff on this fantastic composition. He will paint his own invention inspired by de Heem’s invention. Why not! It’s the 20th century!
Matisse’s painting is also big, about 6 feet long. I saw this a few years ago when the Art Institute of Chicago had a Matisse show. Breathtaking.
Let’s play with this.
Stare at Matisse’s painting so that you see only
-the yellow areas
-the blues & greens
-the red bits
-the black
-where lines converge
-curved lines
-straight lines
This takes time. Don’t rush. Do this over several days.
Now notice that yellow, orange and red come forward in the picture plane. The cool colors—blue and green—recede. Practice seeing that. Stay with it. Some colors come forward, some recede, and what you get is a sense of depth. Foreground, background, transition. It’s powerful.
He does this without any of the techniques perfected in the Renaissance, which he knew very well. No perspective, no chiaroscuro.
When you look at Matisse, you’re contemplating the painting and your own contemplation. It’s a bit much, isn’t it.
Ah, Matisse!
Henri Matisse, 1869-1954
Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 1606 -1684
https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/table-desserts
All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 
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