Page 35 - Studio International - September 1970

that piece of Matisse's sculpture; but the Rodin, in terms both of material and the Rodin may take with it, we are always con-
similarities are trivial compared with the figure as subject. But from the start Matisse's scious of anatomy, the tension and perform-
differences between their work; in fact those aims in sculpture were antithetic to Rodin's: ance of bone and muscle. Our knowledge of
sculptors who initially reacted strongly against Matisse was interested in the whole, not the our own anatomy is what helps us to fix and
Rodin, for example Lipchitz, in the long run part; in stability, balance, harmony, as identify ambiguous and unspecified groups
can be seen to have owed him a much greater against the illusion of movement, unbalance, of masses, members and fragments. But with
debt than did Matisse. The correspondences the overly dramatic.5 Even the apparently Matisse the figure is the given total; propor-
that do exist between Rodin and Matisse common elements—the use of clay and the tions and distortion within that whole are
derive from that strange split in Matisse's figure itself— turn out to be delusive. Rodin developed not in terms of a physical empathy
artistic personality: his need for precedent, used clay with the intensity of working flesh with the spectator, of muscular expression,
his respect for tradition, in contrast to his love itself. Matisse used clay like paint—in a sense but in terms solely of an aesthetic ordering, a
of risk in art; his slow and modest beginnings, quite naively and directly: clay was to him relation of parts. Compared for example, with
in contrast to his capacious ambition and simply plastic volume material. He had no his friend Maillol who, however architectural
egotism. He had already been painting ten knowledge of, or interest in the physical his work appeared, remained tied to anatomic
years when he turned his hand to sculpture. means as such. Rodin would add or subtract equivalence, Matisse's sculpture from 1901-7
In painting there were a multiplicity of parts to or from his sculptures; he was always was truly radical; indeed at this period and in
models on whom he could base his developing consciously and artfully modelling, in perfect this respect Matisse's sculpture was in fact, if
vision. In sculpture there was only one— control of his material. Matisse used clay not in impact, ahead of all his contemporaries
Rodin. Though he had not found himself in that was too hard, and too soft; he carves and in Paris.
painting when he came to sculpture he had he models—there is no style and little con- Up until 1900 most of Matisse's paintings had
nonetheless gained from his experience a sistency in his handling, yet, in virtue of this been landscapes, interiors and still lifes, apart
clear and mature idea of what he expected to refusal or incapacity to respond to conven- from academic figure work. He was trying
find. 'I had already imagined on my own,' he tional characteristics of his material and its out a succession of styles and influences in
was to say later, 'a work of general archi- craft employment, his sculpture retains a painting, without having found an area large
tecture, replacing explicit details by a living directness that is to do with the innocent enough to contain his growing ambition. As a
and suggestive synthesis.' Given Matisse's experience of volume alone, without the commentary on his own generalized account
temperament and training one can see that intrusion of any knowledge or pre-conception. of why he took up sculpture one notes that,
he had no alternative but to work through Similarly with the figure—whatever liberties firstly: Matisse wanted to incorporate the

Bust of an Old Woman 1900
Bronze
Height 62.3 cm.
Courtesy Mme Georges Duthuit
2
Ecorché 1903
Bronze
Courtesy Mme Georges Duthuit
3
The Serpentine 1909
Bronze
Height 56.5 cm.
Coll: Museum of Modern Art, New York
4
Two Negresses 1908
Bronze
Height 47 cm.
Courtesy Mme Georges Duthuit
5
Reclining Nude I 1907
Bronze
34.4 x 49.2 cm.
Coll: Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
6
Jeannette I 1910
Bronze
Height 31 cm.
Coll: Museum of Modern Art, New York
7
Jeannette II 1910
Bronze
Height 26.6 cm.
Coll: Museum of Modern Art, New York
8
Jeannette III 1910-11?
Bronze
Height 61 cm.
Coll: Museum of Modern Art, New York
9
Jeannette IV 1910-11?
Bronze
Height 62.5 cm.
Coll: Museum of Modern Art, New York
10
Jeannette V 1910-11 ?
Bronze
Height 57.9 cm.
Coll: Museum of Modern Art, New York