Studio Interior

The Studio Interior is an oil on canvas painting done by Henri Matisse between 1903 and 1904. It shows a corner of Matisse's apartment that was located at 19 Quai St. Michel, Paris. He lived in the apartment between 1899 and 1907.

He takes time to showcase some of his possessions in a still-life image. Some of the items are a vase of flowers, a glass with a long spoon, jugs, and a lemon placed on a small stand near the viewer. Before creating this masterpiece, Matisse had attended sculpture and drawing classes. This became the basis for his new paintings at the studio apartment.

This still life image is an accurate account of his painting room. Henri most likely used the cabinet at the corner of the room to store his painting supplies and canvas. He used the wooden platforms on the left to place his supplies and canvas as he worked. Finally, he used the stool on the side of the room to place objects so that he would look at them as he painted.

Style of his Painting

Henri was known for various painting styles during his career. However, he created this image at the start of his career. It is a cross between realism and fauvism. Realism was also called naturalism. The form of art tries to represent the subject without adding some artificial embellishments, speculative fiction, or including supernatural elements.

In the studio image, Henri offers an authentic look of his studio apartment for the viewers to see. He used similar colours and dimensions as one would see if he or she visited the studio apartment. The realism movement was a way for artists to move away from the highly artificial romanticism style popular. One advantage of the realist style was that viewers could tell how the place looked centuries down the line, as everything was clearly depicted.

On the other hand, fauvism was a style of art that emphasized the use of colours over the representational values protected by impressionism art. Impressionism art was known for small but visible brush strokes and the depiction of light. Fauvism builds upon it by adding more solid colour over these strokes to give the image a 3D feel. However, some brush strokes are still visible. This style came about in 1900, and Henri was one of its greatest proponents. A combination of these two styles brought a richly painted, real masterpiece of his studio house. The painting was a gift to himself after graduating from the school of art. It is currently held by Lord Amulree.