HARRY COOPER:

One thing Matisse said about color is this: “When I put a green, it is not grass. When I put a blue, it is not the sky.”

NARRATOR:

And here you can see what he meant: pink waves, orange masts, a multi-colored sky.

Curator and head of modern art, Harry Cooper.

HARRY COOPER:

This little painting really had a big effect. We’re used to seeing it in posters, on calendars. But at the time, even for viewers used to impressionism, this was going much farther.

I think that central boat, which is just rendered by four thick strokes of paint, a sort of whitish pink one, a blue one, more of a salmon one, a dark green one: there is so much invention beyond what Matisse might have seen here.

NARRATOR:

The painting marked a milestone in Matisse’s career. He showed it at the 1905 Salon d’Automne, where one critic dismissed him—and some of his peers—as fauves, or “wild beasts,” calling their work an “orgy of pure tones.” But the name stuck, and Matisse led this loosely allied group in what became the first French avant-garde movement of the early twentieth century.

HARRY COOPER:

The central part is lovely and dynamic. But what’s happening around it, the framing— the walls, the windows—where he’s getting away from the impressionist stroke, the little touch- touch-touch here and there, creating that lyrical rhythm. And he’s starting to work with large areas of color and setting these against each other. I think that’s where we see the Matisse of the future.