Matisse's Interim in Paris: A Return to Fauvism?

Matisse's Interim in Paris: A Return to Fauvism?

Importantly, however, this change in Matisse’s attitude towards women did not happen all at once. After finishing the groundbreaking Zorah en Jaune, Matisse returned to Paris for a brief period before he visited Morocco a second time. He completed several paintings in this interim in Paris, yet rather than presenting a single model, as he did with Zorah, he composed series of paintings of goldfish. In two of these paintings, Poissons rouge et sculpture (Goldfish and Sculpture) and Intérieur aux poissons rouge (Interior with Goldfish), Matisse returns to the voluptuous nudes that so well defined the Fauvist period from 1905-1907. As such, they create some concern as they seem to show the renewal of Fauvism in his work. Was Matisse backsliding into a precarious Fauve-driven attitude toward women during these transitional months in Europe? Perhaps not. In these two paintings, the voluptuous figure in the background next to the bowls in both paintings is merely a sculpture, not a true woman, and thus explains the reason why the figure is painted so prominently and promiscuously displayed. Moreover, as Jack Elderfield asserts, “Back in France in 1912, Matisse re-created [Morocco] for himself� (Cowart et. al 221), by painting the goldfish and flowers. Furthermore, as Elderfield carefully notes, “In one of the paintings [Intérieur aux poissons rouge], we see, shown on the wall of the studio, Zorah en Jaune� (Cowart et. al 221). This presence of Zorah on the very walls of the scene of his painting signifies Matisse’s preoccupation with the more dignified Moroccan woman, and thus provides evidence that he had not reverted to his old Fauvist techniques of sexually depicting women but actually had included a Moroccan feminine twist by decorating the walls of his Parisian canvas with the cultured Zorah. This produces the fascinating juxtaposition of a cultured Moroccan woman who composes the painting in the painting that hangs on the walls of the primitive and thus questionably Fauve painting in Paris. This juxtaposition is further complicated by a second painting on the walls of the canvas, this of a nude woman languorously lounging in Fauve form. Does this placement of these two paintings nearly tête-à-tête reveal Matisse’s turmoil as he flirts again with Fauve women before accepting a woman of culture? He is not willing to surrender his ability to paint the primitive Fauve woman to his new technique of depicting a cultured woman with finesse. And yet he yields to his new tendencies, otherwise he would not have been compelled to include a rendering of Zorah en Jaune in Intérieur aux poissons rouge. Here, Matisse was carrying his new Moroccan styles of painting back to “primitive� Paris while he waited to return to the “civilization� of the exotic.

More about the Goldfish Paintings

INTÉRIEUR AUX POISSONS ROUGES, 1912, on left
Henri Matisse
oil on canvas
The Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania

POISSONS ROUGE ET SCULPTURE, 1912, on right
Henri Matisse
oil on canvas
The Museum of Modern Art, New York