Hat Wearing a Lady
In my first painting class, we had to chose a painting to replicate that was created after the 1800’s. I chose Lady with a Hat by Henri Matisse. For those of you that don’t know the background of this painting, it was created in 1905. It is a portrait of Matisse’s wife, Amelie Parayre. The true title is La Femme au Chapeau, which is french for Lady with a Hat. The first time I saw a picture of his painting I feel in love with it. The bright colors, the abstract style, the way Henri moved the viewers eyes around the canvas with specific placement of colors. It’s simply magical! Matisse’s painting is much smaller than mine, his is only 12 inches height and 9 inches wide. Mine is 20 inches height and 16 inches wide. And, since I had the advantage of modern day technology, I was able to make the colors even more vibrant than Matisse’s. Another fun fact, is that Henri’s Lady with a Hat was one of the first paintings of Fauvism. “Fauvists, or les Fauves is French for “the wild beasts” – a loosely-defined group of artists in the early 20th century, so named by the critics for their bold use of bright, often unmixed colors they used in their work. Fauvism is considered to be the first art movement of the 20h century.” The reason for Fauvism, is that many people were excited about photographs during the early 1900’s, so painters had to create a whole new style of paintings in order to get and keep the public’s attention. I have to say, that for one of my first oil paintings, I think I did a pretty good job imitating Henri’s magnificent work. Of course, his is much better than mine. However, I still love my painting, and I hope you will enjoy it too.
