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Art Humanities

April 2013.

La Japonaise: Woman Beside The Water and The Funeral of The Anarchist Galli:

Modern Paintings-Modern Techniques.

The paintingsLa Japonaise: Woman Beside The Waterby Henri Matisse and The funeral

of The Anarchist Galli by Carlos Carra, were created at the beginning of the twentieth century,

and while influenced by works of the past, they are also markedly different. Indeed, it is the

differences from the traditional painting styles of the likes of Raphael and Bruegel, in the areas

of the color palette, brushwork, technique, perspective and form that distinguishes these works as

modern.

InLa Japonaise: Woman Beside The Water, Matisse depicts a woman in a kimono sitting

beside the water, her head bowed as though she were sad or in deep contemplation. Matisses

depiction of such an everyday scene is by no means very different from painting styles of the

past. Indeed, quite a number of traditional paintings feature people doing simple tasks such as

working or resting (take for example BruegelsFestive peasants). Carras painting in contrast,

depicts the tumult that occurred at The Funeral of the Italian Anarchist Galli. While Carras

painting is similar to traditional paintings in that it depicts an event with which its audience

would have been familiar with, it is different in that it depicts a war-like scene. Most of the

traditional painting had more happy subject matters, and conflicts such as the one depicted in

Carras painting are not well represented (The Oath of The Horatii by David stands out as an

exception). Here we see a moving away from the religious themes of the Renaissance and the

everyday events of Impressionism.

Upon first glance, the subject matter ofLa Japonaise and The Funeral Of the Anarchist

Galli are not very evident. In fact, if one were to glance quickly at either painting, both could

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appear to be paintings devoid of subject matter. In order to fully grasp what is being depicted,

one must carefully examine the paintings, until slowly various aspects become revealed. In the

case ofLa Japonaise, one must look closely to see the form of the woman and in The Funeral Of

The Anarchist Galli, the people, flags and policemen. Even after this, there will still be some

elements that remain unclear to the viewer. For most traditional paintings, this is not the case.

Usually the subject matter is very evident to the viewer, and a lot less interpretation of the scene

is required. Thus we see Carra and Matisse moving towards more modern perspectives where the

viewer must play more of an active role in consuming art. That is the artist does not make

everything very obvious to the viewer, he/she must spend some time trying to decide what

exactly is being shown and the intention of the artist.

The reduction of the color palette in Carras painting is further evidence of divergence

from traditional paintings. Carra chooses to use four main colors: red, black, yellow and blue,

with red and black being very dominant. This is certainly in contrast to paintings of the past in

which artists employed an almost countless array of colors to produce their paintings. Matisse

certainly decided to follow this tradition, and his painting features a variety of particularly bright

colors.

DespiteLa Japonaises similarity with works of the past in the use of the varied color

palette, it differs in that it fails to use these colors to accurately represent the scene that it shows.

It is in this way that Matisse and Carra use color to distinguish their works as modern. Whereas

traditional painters almost exclusively tried to reproduce nature in the best way possible, Matisse

and Carra eschew this method and use the colors in the way they see fit. For Carra, this means

using color primarily to help the viewer feel the mood of situation. While color may have been

used to elicit or demonstrate emotion in the past, using it in this way never took precedence over

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trying to depict reality. Carras use of mainly red and black, at the expense of a realistically

colored painting, give the work a very dark tone and help the viewer to feel the passion of the

moment and think of the bloodshed that may be about to occur. Matisse, however, seems to

move towards abstraction and does not use color to help with the interpretation of the painting.

Rather, he seems to use colors for their own sake and chooses a multitude of colors, even when

an object should be a single color. Interestingly enough, he uses very bright colors although the

subject of his painting seems to be in a very somber mood.

Similar to Renaissance and Impressionism painters, Carra uses light and shadows to

enhance his painting. Light is cast upon the figures in the painting and helps to give the figures

some feeling of depth, despite the fact that the figures themselves are a mass of indistinguishable

bodies. The shadows also help to add to the dark mood of the painting. The darker colors of the

people and lighter colors of the sky above also help to create a horizon line, which adds

perspective to the painting and distinguishes the people from the sky. Matisses painting on the

other hand is void of any sort of light/dark features. This is as a result of his choice to move

further away from the close depictions of reality seen in traditional paintings and towards

abstraction. As a result of this, Matisses painting appears to be more flat than Caras and

traditional paintings that employ the use of light and dark and various geometrical rules to

portray depth. His use of brush strokes in varying directions, however, does add a little bit of

three-dimensionality to the painting and helps to differentiate the woman from her surroundings.

Matisses brushwork and technique are very unique. He uses a variety of brush strokes:

some are short and thick and others longer and less distinguishable, but all are visible. In most

traditional paintings, brush strokes are visible upon close examination of the work, but they are

by no means so much a part of the painting as Matisses are. This effect is further enhanced by

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Matisses choice to leave parts of the canvas visible. He does not use a multitude of brush strokes

to completely cover the canvas; rather he only uses those that are necessary to depict the scene,

and uses the uncovered canvas as part of his background. This integration of the canvas into the

work is definitely a feature of modern painting and is not seen in many traditional paintings. In

fact, even Carra chooses to adhere to the traditional method of covering the entire canvas with

paint.

Carra, like Matisse, sometimes uses very thickly applied brush strokes, however, they

are subtler and less visible. He also uses quick thin brush strokes to show movement. This use of

brushstrokes to depict movement is a very modern feature of the painting, and the depiction of

the movement itself is a feature of futurism, particularly of the lances that the subjects of the

paintings hold. Another feature of futurism seen in the work is the cubist-like depiction of the

scene. Although the effect is less evident, one is able to see that the forms of the people are very

clearly outlined and somewhat geometrical. The sky too, seems to be fragmented into a variety

of pieces. This use of more linear and geometrical forms is usually only seen in traditional

paintings when the author is depicting a work which is naturally so. Matisse also outlines the

subject of his painting, but does so in an entirely different way. That is, he chooses to leave the

pencil marks that outline the subject of his painting as part of the final work. This is of note, as it

represents the use of mixed media to create a work (synthetic cubism is similar in this way).

Whereas pencil may have been used in the past to create sketches and drafts of the work, it

usually was not incorporated into the final piece.

La Japonaise: Woman Beside The Waterand The Funeral of The Anarchist Galli are two

paintings that can most definitely be considered modern. Although Matisse and Carra reference

artists and techniques of the past, they also modified various traditional techniques to create

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pieces that are truly unique and modern.