French And Russian-French Paintings

By Darren Hartley


In the traditional Flemish style, Matisse paintings began as still lives and landscapes. They were completed with reasonable proficiency. Primarily known as a painter, Henri-Emile-Benoit Matisse was also a French poet, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor.

Most of the early Matisse paintings employed a dark palette, thus, had the tendency to be gloomy. Henri's first contemporary art experimentations earned a rebellious reputation.

With the introduction of Impressionism between 1897 and 1898, Matisse paintings underwent a complete change in style. The Dinner Table was considered the first masterpiece among the Matisse paintings. This painting was completed in 1897 and was considered radical given its impressionist aspects during that period.

Without much clear direction, Matisse paintings displayed Henri's rebellious talents by 1899. Whenever he got stuck with his paintings, Henri turned to sculpture for the organization of his thoughts and sensations.

Influenced by the works of the post-impressionist painters and the Japanese artists, Matisse paintings made color its crucial element. This contributed to a reconstruction in the still life philosophy of Henri. Patterned after Paul Cezanne's fragmented planes, Matisse paintings were stretched to a forced contemplation of the color surfaces.

From 1899 to 1905, Matisse paintings made use of the pointillist technique as adopted from Signac. Meanwhile, in 1902-03, they went back to dark palettes, briefly showing a movement back to naturalism.

The early Marc Chagall paintings showed fabulous and metaphoric images on everyday life as exemplified in Birth, The Deal and A Holy Family. Marc Zakharovich Chagall was a Russian-French artist referred to as the quintessential Jewish artist of the 20th century.

Marc Chagall paintings demonstrated a perfect feeling of colors and mastery of the Fauvism methods. They exemplified mastery of new trends and tendencies, including Cubism, Futurism and Orphism, reshaped in the Marc way, as depicted in The Violinist, To My Betrothed, Golgotha and Paris Through the Window.

A number of Marc Chagall paintings, including The Pinch of Snuff, The Cattle Dealer and I and the Village, were filled with love and nostalgia. The Marc Chagall paintings remained immersed in nostalgia during the First World War. The difference in Marc's paintings during the war was their becoming very multifaceted in their representation of everyday life.

During this period, the Marc Chagall paintings completed included Window at the Dacha, War, Red Jew, Feast of the Tabernacles, Birthday, Pink Lovers, The Promenade and Bella with White Collar.

War reflected human grief and hardships of war. Red Jew and Feast of the Tabernacles were strongly religious Marc Chagall paintings resulting from intensification of the Jewish persecution. The last 4 Marc Chagall paintings were lyrical works filled with love towards a woman named Bella.




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