Influence and Individuality: Matisse, Picasso and their Cezanne Connection

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Within this essay, I will be referencing the works of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso in relation to Paul Cezanne’s work to see how they were both inspired by and created their own offerings in their works. The specific artwork that I will be comparing will be Matisse’s “Bonheur de Vivre (Joy of Life)”, Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” and Cezanne’s “The Large Bathers” which can all be found through the references provided. To begin this discussion, we should first look at the work of Cezanne which inspired the two artists later on. In The Large Bathers, Cezanne continued on from the Impressionist era of painting to help form what was more known as Expressionism, which relied heavily on the emotional expression of the art on canvas. The Large Bathers is no exception as you can see the formal elements from previous eras were thrown to the side as the structure of the painting has become almost blurred; there are no defined lines except for the shapes within the boundaries that make up the landscape and
In first looking to Matisse’s work on “Joy of Life”, we see the similarities in the way that the colors and bodies are expressed by the artists. The leisure of the subjects can be seen and the colors surrounding each of them is expressed in an emotionally charged way. Bright reds outline bodies and deep blues as well which breaks from Cezanne as he was still using more natural colors even though they were exaggerated. In the same way, Matisse used the landscape to put the focus on the subjects, bringing everything into view towards the center of the painting. Another element that Matisse used to break away from Cezanne was his use (or lack thereof) of perspective and scaling. The bodies, while at different locations in the landscape, all have differing sizes that do not make sense in relation to how the perspective should be

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