Open Window

Open Window is an icon of early modernism. A small but explosive work, it is celebrated as one of the most important early paintings of the so-called fauve school, a group of artists, including Andre Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Georges Braque, that emerged in 1904.

This landscape painting is also Matisse's famous artwork. In this work, the artist did not depict the objective and natural colors. Instead, Matisse used very subjective and exaggerated colors to paint. Red French windows, walls rendered in turquoise and rose, vermillion flower pot and dark green vines, the colorful beach, sea, boats, all these construct a gorgeous scene of the seaside. The whole picture is filled with romance of the ocean. These unnatural colors express Matisse's delighted emotions.