Matisse's Bonheur De Vivre And Les Demoiselles?

In this essay I will discuss three similar paintings, painted by three different painters around the same time period. Furthermore, I will discuss how both Matisse’s Bonheur de Vivre and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon were inspired by Paul Cézanne’s The Large Bathers.
First, I will discuss the piece that inspired Picasso and Matisse, The Large Bathers. This was painted by Paul Cézanne from 1898-1905 (“The large bathers, 1898-1905 by Paul Cezanne,” 2010). The painting depicts a group of nude woman in front of a lake; the triangle made by the trees attracts the onlooker to the distant figure in the background as well as the lake. The painting is sultry and allows the viewer to gaze into an illustration of natural looking woman, who appear in normality, sitting around the lake just conversing about their daily occurrences, maybe even bitching about their husband’s and kids, as woman do.

The Large Bathers specifically, inspired Matisse’s Bonheur de Vivre and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Matisse’s Bonheur de Vivre, like The Large Bathers depicts nude men and woman surrounded by landscape, however, the painting is much more sensual than Cézanne’s painting. It shows lovers kissing, what appear to be nude women conversing and a group of woman dancing to the flute playing nude. This painting is much lighter, however clearly inspired by The Large Bather’s. The colors are bright and the figures bring you into the painting. Matisse’s painting is a clear upgrade over Cézanne and was briefly looked at as, “as the most daring painter in Paris” (Harris & Zucker,