Open Window, Collioure

Paris

Henri Matisse

Open Window, Collioure

1905

Oil on canvas, 55.3 × 46 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington

Open glazed doors frame sailboats in the harbor, with potted flowers and vines on the balcony in front. The view looks out over Collioure, a Mediterranean town.

  • Exhibited in Paris at the Salon d'Automne of 1905, soon after it was painted.
  • Look at the room: a cool green wall faces a pink and violet one across the opening.
  • Thick, raised paint in the flowerpots contrasts with thin, quick marks for the distant masts.
  • Dabs of pure color are set apart and never blended into one another. Gaps of untouched canvas show between them, most clearly around the vines and the sea.
  • Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney bought it in 1952; it came to the gallery as a gift in 1998.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · PD-Art

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