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拍品专文
In the 1890s, a young Henri Matisse began his formal artistic training under the French Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau, a distinguished professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Before long, Matisse established his own studio on the fourth floor of an apartment building at 19, quai Saint-Michel, where he experimented with portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. The year 1896 proved pivotal in his early career: it marked his debut at the Salon—the official, state-sponsored exhibition for academically trained artists. Although Matisse would later turn away from this traditional venue in favor of more avant-garde exhibitions such as those held at the Salon d’Automne, his participation in the 1896 Salon earned him critical praise and encouragement, solidifying his determination to pursue painting as a profession.
According to art historian Jack Flam, curators at the Centre Pompidou have proposed that the reflection visible in the bamboo-framed mirror at upper left depicts Caroline Joblaud, the mother of Matisse’s first child, Marguerite, born in 1894 (Matisse: The Man and His Art, 1869–1918, London, 1986, pp. 38–39). The woman’s downward gaze obscures her features; she may be reading, much like the figure in another work from this period, La Liseuse (1895, Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou). Her dark red dress provides the only distinct color accent, separating her from the otherwise shadowy background.
The painting’s true focus, however, lies in the illuminated still-life arrangement occupying the foreground. Here, Matisse drew clear inspiration from seventeenth-century Dutch still-life and genre painters, as well as from the eighteenth-century French master Jean Siméon Chardin. Moreau, Matisse’s teacher, held Chardin in high esteem for his quiet, unpretentious depictions of domestic objects, his subdued color harmonies, and the tactile richness of his painted surfaces. Under Moreau’s guidance, Matisse studied and copied Chardin’s works at the Louvre, and Nature morte reflects this influence. The composition closely recalls Chardin’s 1763 canvas La Table d’office, dit aussi Les Débris d’un déjeuner (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Like Chardin, Matisse arranges a modest selection of household objects across the surface of a dark wooden buffet. A glass of water, dark bottle, saucepan, striped towel, apple and two eggs evoke the simplicity of an everyday breakfast, perhaps shared by the artist with his companion.
According to art historian Jack Flam, curators at the Centre Pompidou have proposed that the reflection visible in the bamboo-framed mirror at upper left depicts Caroline Joblaud, the mother of Matisse’s first child, Marguerite, born in 1894 (Matisse: The Man and His Art, 1869–1918, London, 1986, pp. 38–39). The woman’s downward gaze obscures her features; she may be reading, much like the figure in another work from this period, La Liseuse (1895, Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou). Her dark red dress provides the only distinct color accent, separating her from the otherwise shadowy background.
The painting’s true focus, however, lies in the illuminated still-life arrangement occupying the foreground. Here, Matisse drew clear inspiration from seventeenth-century Dutch still-life and genre painters, as well as from the eighteenth-century French master Jean Siméon Chardin. Moreau, Matisse’s teacher, held Chardin in high esteem for his quiet, unpretentious depictions of domestic objects, his subdued color harmonies, and the tactile richness of his painted surfaces. Under Moreau’s guidance, Matisse studied and copied Chardin’s works at the Louvre, and Nature morte reflects this influence. The composition closely recalls Chardin’s 1763 canvas La Table d’office, dit aussi Les Débris d’un déjeuner (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Like Chardin, Matisse arranges a modest selection of household objects across the surface of a dark wooden buffet. A glass of water, dark bottle, saucepan, striped towel, apple and two eggs evoke the simplicity of an everyday breakfast, perhaps shared by the artist with his companion.