User:Victoria bruzik/The Dessert: Harmony in Red (The Red Room)

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The Dessert: Harmony in Red (The Red Room) is a piece of artwork painted by Henri Matisse. The painting is bold with attention to detail. Originally titled, Harmony in Blue, the painting was full of blue color and painted in 1908. In 1909, Matisse changed the blue details to red. This change gave the artwork the new identity of The Dessert: Harmony in Red (The Red Room).

History
The original name for this piece was Harmony in Blue. Sergey Shchukin commissioned the work from Matisse in 1908. Shchukin was a famous Russian collector and the artwork was intended to be located in the dining room of his mansion. Harmony in Blue was a part of a collection of pendant paintings Shchukin owned.

In 1909, Matisse was compelled to repaint the picture with an abundance of red. The blue spaces were turned into red spaces. The artwork adopted the new name,The Dessert: Harmony in Red. Matisse had the goal of capturing still life and the interiors of the time.

Today, The Dessert: Harmony in Red (The Red Room) is located in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is located within the collection of European Fine Art.

Description and Analysis
There are specific regions of the painting that highlight Matisse's impressionists qualities. There is sharp contrast in the painting. The red of the room contrasts with the the dark green of the landscape depicted outside the window. The dark blue swirls that line the tablecloth and walls contrast the abundance of the rich red. In a painting that is bold, Matisse is intentional about maintaining objects realistic qualities. Izergina points this out in their book The Hermitage, Leningrad: French 20th Century Masters. An example of this in the painting is that in the abundantly red room, the lemons on the table are yellow and maintain a realistic shape and size. The woman in the painting provides a sense of reality in the painting. The woman is proportional to the table. The woman gives context to the time of the painting with the clothing she is wearing and action she is completing. In the book, Matisse: The Man and His Art, Katharine Kuh states that there is a comparison drawn between Bathers with a Turtle and Harmony in Red. Both pieces were painted by Matisse. Bathers with a Turtle was completed between 1907 and 1908. The curvature and pose of the bodies in Bathers with a Turtle was suggested to be similar and influential to the woman in Harmony in Red.

Something unique is the continuous flow of the painting. The red of the tablecloth and walls are the same color. Object among the red allow the viewer to depict depth. For instance, the chair appearing behind the table gives context to the presence of a table. There is a faint line that runs between the table and wall, which requires attention to detail to distinguish 3D space.

The overwhelming and bold red color seen in The Dessert: Harmony in Red began a trend in Matisse's work. Piece of work that followed created by Matisse included: The Red Studio and the Red Interior series.