BMA

This painting is entitled "Violinist and Young Girl" ("Divertissment) by Henri Matisse. The focal points are the young girl and the violinist. This painting is composed into an L-shaped format. In person, I was able to see Matisse's brush strokes and areas in the painting where he made it look smudged. This painting is my favorite out of the three I chose because of the bright colors and similar patterns placed in the painting. It makes me feel happy and relaxed. It is as if I can hear the music that the violinist is playing.

This painting is entitled "Festival of Flowers", which is also by Henri Matisse. What I like about his paintings is that he uses bright colors and smudges to represent objects and figures while also making it obvious as to what that object or figure is. This painting is composed into three golden triangles: one triangle for the shutters and the rest of the building, one triangle for the two ladies sitting on the balcony, and the last triangle for the road and the floats and figures along it. The focal point is the two women. Matisse used his paintbrush to create a very scratchy effect on the canvas. The sky and the grey road are made up of very few brush strokes.

This painting by Norbert Goeneutte is entitled "View of St. Lazara Railway Station, Paris" because the artist painted his view from his apartment in Paris. The focal point is Charles Garnier's Opera House in the distance. This painting is composed into the rule of thirds. In one section, there is the sky. The opera house and the other buildings surrounding it is in the section. The steam and the trains are in the last section. I thought this piece was interesting because Goenuette put more detail into the buildings and figures off in the distance rather than putting more detail into the train station, which is closer to him. The painting made me get an eerie and melancholy feeling because of the smoke and the figures to the far right of the painting look almost like ghosts.