Matisse, Henri (1869-1954)
Les Tapis rouges (The Red Carpets)
1906
Oil on canvas, 89 x 116 cm
Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble
© Succession H. Matisse
Painted in Collioure in 1906, The Red Carpets evokes this pivotal moment when the painting, here a still life, loses its depth and acquires a purely decorative dimension. Vibrant fabrics, moiré Catalan scarves, pottery and Algerian rugs brought back from Biskra combine their shimmering patterns to create a space saturated with bright hues, where red dominates. Areas of green, its complement, accentuate the chromatic vibration of the whole. The objects and fruits, placed in unstable balance on this cascade of richly textured fabrics, retain a semblance of volume without having a cast shadow. The deep black of the center of the carpet on the wall seems to hollow out the space like a dark window when the fruits and the scarf give the illusion of tilting towards the viewer. Purchased in 1908 by Marcel Sembat at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery, this work was considered by its author as one of his best. (MDG)