Open Window, Collioure

1905

Henri Matisse

Painter, French, 1869 - 1954

A French window with its sill lined with flowerpots opens into a view of boats floating in a body of water in this loosely painted, vibrantly colored, stylized, vertical painting. The doors open inward, and they are painted with coral orange and cranberry red. The wall behind the door to the left is peacock blue and the wall to our right is fuchsia pink, and those colors are reflected in the opposite windows of the doors. Three flowerpots in crimson red, marmalade orange, or royal blue sit on the windowsill in front of us. Foliage in the pots is painted with short strokes of cardinal red and turquoise blue. Over the window, a two-paned transom window pierces a forest-green wall. The view through the panes has a band of salmon pink across the top and dabs of celery green and banana yellow below. The dabs and dashes of pine and lime green continue down the sides of the window and across the sill, suggesting vines growing up around the opening. A band of ultramarine blue beyond the flowerpots could be a balcony. Several rust-orange masts of ships with hulls painted with swipes of indigo blue, flamingo pink, forest green, and marigold orange float in the water beyond. The water is painted with parallel strokes in pale pink and butter yellow. The sky above is painted with thick, wavy lines of steel blue, periwinkle purple, and seafoam green. The artist signed the work in red paint in the lower right, “Henri Matisse.”
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A painting may provide a “window” into a different world. Here, the painting is itself a window, and it reveals a world dizzy with color and movement. Over the flowerpots on the sill and through the leaves of the trees, we see sailboats bobbing off the Mediterranean coastal town of Collioure in France. The windowpanes, opened inward, reflect large blocks of salmon, green, and lavender from the interior walls. Thick staccato marks suggest foliage, water, and boats. This work was thought to be shocking in the early 20th century, and its creator, Henri Matisse, was dubbed a fauve, or wild beast.

Open Window, Collioure (English)
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On View

East Building Mezzanine, Gallery 217-B

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney

  • Dimensions

    overall: 55.25 × 46.04 cm (21 3/4 × 18 1/8 in.)
    framed: 69.85 × 61.28 × 5.72 cm (27 1/2 × 24 1/8 × 2 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1998.74.7

More About this Artwork

Video:  Henri Matisse's "Open Window, Collioure" (ASL)

This video provides an ASL description of Henri Matisse's Open Window, Collioure.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Galerie Druet, Paris). Pieter Van der Velde [1848-1922], Le Havre, 1906; probably given to his son-in-law, General Réquin, Paris, 1915-1918. Private collection, Paris, in 1949;[1] purchased jointly by (Carstairs Gallery, New York) and (Sidney Janis Gallery, New York);[2] sold 6 August 1952 to Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, New York;[3] gift 1998 to NGA.
[1] The painting was reproduced with this credit line in Georges Dethuit, Les Fauves, Geneva, 1949: 37.
[2] According to a letter of 22 June 1952 from John Rewald to John Hay Whitney, urging Whitney to purchase the painting (copy in NGA curatorial files).
[3] Acquisition date according to Whitney records, copies in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1905

  • Salon d'Automne, Paris, 1905, no. 715.

1906

  • Henri Matisse, Galerie Druet, Paris, 1906, no. 41, as La fenêtre ouverte.

1952

  • Les Fauves, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Minneapolis Institute of Art; San Francisco Museum of Art; Art Gallery of Toronto, 1952-1953, no. 95, repro.

1953

  • 5 Years of Janis: 5th Anniversary Exhibition, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 1953, no. 31, repro.

1955

  • Paintings from Private Collections, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1955, unnumbered catalogue.

1956

  • Rétrospective Henri Matisse, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1956, no. 15.

1959

  • Triumph der Farbe: Die Europäischen Fauves, Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen, Switzerland; Orangerie des Schlosses Charlottenburg, Berlin, 1959, no. 2, repro.

1960

  • The John Hay Whitney Collection, Tate Gallery, London, 1960-1961, no. 37, repro.

1968

  • Matisse, Hayward Gallery, London, 1968, no. 34, repro.

1970

  • Henri Matisse, Grand Palais, Paris, 1970, no. 60, repro.

1976

  • The "Wild Beasts": Fauvism and Its Affinities, Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1976, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1978

  • Aspects of Twentieth-Century Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978-1979, no. 36, repro.

1980

  • Post-Impressionism: Cross Currents in European and American Painting 1880-1906, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980, no. 156, repro.

1983

  • The John Hay Whitney Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1983, no. 50, repro.

1992

  • Henri Matisse: A Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992-1993, no. 61, repro.

1993

  • Henri Matisse 1904-1917, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1993, no. 19, repro.

1998

  • Gifts to the Nation from Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998-1999, no catalogue.

2000

  • Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000-2001, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2004

  • Fauve Painting from the Permanent Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2004-2005, no catalogue.

2005

  • Henri Matisse: Figur Farbe Raum [Henri Matisse: Figure Couleur Espace], Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Fondation Beyeler, Basel, 2006-2006, shown only in Basel, unnumbered cat., repro. (Basel/French cat.), fig. 15 (Basel/German cat.).

2012

  • The Ecstasy of Colour -- Munch, Matisse, and Expressionism, Museum Folkwang Essen, 2012-2013, no. 91, repro.

2013

  • Matisse and the Fauves, Albertina, Vienna, 2013-2014, no. 27, repro.

2014

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, The Phillips Collection, Washington, 2014-2015, no catalogue.

  • Matisse and Friends: Selected Masterworks from the National Gallery of Art, Denver Art Museum, 2014-2015, no catalogue.

  • Expressionism in Germany and France: From Van Gogh to Kandinsky, Kunsthaus Zürich; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Montreal Museum of Fine Art, 2014-2015, no. 150, pl. 110 (shown only in Los Angeles).

2015

  • Collection Conversations: The Chrysler and the National Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, 2015, no catalogue.

Bibliography

1949

  • Duthuit, Georges. Les Fauves: Braque, Derain, Van Dongen, Dufy, Friesz, Manguin, Marquet, Matisse, Puy, Vlaminck. Geneva, 1949: repro. 37.

1954

  • Diehl, Gaston and Agnes Humbert. Henri Matisse. Paris, 1954:33, repro. no. 24.

1956

  • Rewald, John. "French Paintings in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney." The Connoisseur 134, no. 552 (April 1956):138, repro.

1962

  • Crespelle, Jean-Paul. Les Fauves. Neuchâtel, 1962:7.

1969

  • Russell, John. The World of Matisse 1869-1954. New York, 1969: 60, repro. 61.

1971

  • Orienti, Sandra. Matisse. London, New York, Sydney, and Toronto:1971. 20.

  • Aragon, Louis. _Henri Matisse, roman. 2 vols. 1971:1:140, repro. no. XVI.

1973

  • Jacobus, John. Henri Matisse. New York, 1973: 110, repro. no. 13.

1978

  • Edlerfield, John. The Cut-Outs of Henri Matisse. New York, 1978: 15-16, repro. no. 13.

1979

  • Gowing, Lawrence. Matisse. New York and Toronto, 1979: 51, repro. no. 33.

1982

  • Schneider, Pierre, Massimo Carra and Xavier Deryng. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Matisse 1904-1928. 1982:no. 40, repro.

1983

  • Jacobus, John. Henri Matisse. New York, 1983: 69, repro. 70.

1984

  • Watkins, Nicholas. Matisse. London, 1984: 63, repro. 61.

1987

  • Guillard, Jacqueline and Maurice. Matisse: Le rythme et la ligne. Paris and New York, 1987: repro. no. 17.

1991

  • Neret, Gilles. Matisse. 1991:35, repro. 29.

1992

  • Schneider, Pierre. Matisse. 1992: 220-222, repro. 221.

1993

  • Labaume, Vincent. Matisse. 1993: repro. no. 38.

1994

  • Milner, Frank. Henri Matisse. 1994: repro. 40.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 414-415, no. 345, color repro.

2009

  • Gariff, David, Eric Denker, and Dennis P. Weller. The World's Most Influential Painters and the Artists They Inspired. Hauppauge, NY, 2009: 150, color repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: Henri Matisse

Wikidata ID

Q3745698

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