Henri Matisse's Carmelina

Henri Mattise's Carmelina is the picture that my partner and I chose to observe during our stay at the Museum of Fine Arts. The painting is extremely confrontational and almost uncomfortable to look at for too long as Carmelina stares back at your with upright posture and a somewhat blank expression. Most of the nude paintings I saw that day had the women painted with happy or seductive expressions on their faces, but this painting had an almost aggressive nature to it. As if to say, " Yes I'm naked, deal with it!". And yet the woman's expression is innocent at the same time, especially with the presence of the ribbon in her hair that contrasts with every other color in the painting. The woman's voluptuous body also contrast with the angular background which contains picture frames, a mirror, and what appear to be clay pots. This is really an incredible painting that evokes a lot of emotion and creates an atmosphere of intimacy instead of infatuation.