Just finished watching the 'Henri Matisse' episode of the BBC's new "Modern Masters" series. The picture I have attached to this post is Matisse's Piano Lesson, which I have never really taken much notice of before, but have now very swiftly changed my mind! The image depicts the artist's son, Pierre, having his piano lesson. Pierre supposedly despised these piano lessons, and this becomes very obvious once you analyse the image. The shape in the top right hand corner of the piece can be identified as Pierre's piano instructor; she hovers above him in a very dominating, strict and almost threatening manner. Her appearance away from the main content of the painting further shows Pierre's disregard for his teacher. Her feet are shown as raised way above Pierre's head; a clear teacher - pupil divide. The sharp angles of the metronome sitting directly in the eye line of the student further lead us to believe that Pierre was in fact daunted by these lessons, and possibly music itself.
The colours Matisse used in the painting are not those usually associated with his work at around this time; the time of the First World War. There is a vast expanse of grey tone right across the picture, possibly showing the morbidity of the time. Pierre is shown as much younger than he actually would have been at the time the painting was created, which seems to portray the young age that men were when they went to fight. At the time of painting the image, Pierre was in fact at war, and Matisse was obviously unsure when or if, he would return. The painting, then, almost has a nostalgic, wistful feel to it.
Overall, after reconnecting with this image, after a long time of disregarding it as not one of Matisse's greatest works (after all, on looking at the image without prior background knowledge, it might be difficult to decipher this as a Matisse image; aside, perhaps, from the decoration adorning the piano and the railings), I have readjusted my stance. The picture is completely harmonious, and with its underlying symbolic ideas, twisted in with a bit of Cubist influence, the outcome becomes a piece which highlights Matisse's nostalgia, and possible worry about his son's fortune at a time when no one was really sure what the future held.
References: http://smarthistory.org/matisse-piano-lesson.html
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