This is another example of how truthfulness and realism are not always synonymous. The naturalness of the bathers is shown by making the lines of their bodies similar to the lines of the natural landscape.
Henri Matisse's "The Joy of Life" is not even an arrangement of posed figures like Cezanne and Picasso's works of art, rather it is a cacophony of color and the rounded, nude sensual female figures engage in various activities all over the canvas. The truth of the joy of life is not represented in a singular principle of beauty, or a clear, narrative scene or pose, but in an almost confetti-like fashion of figures. Over Matisse's canvas different women, some with faces, some without faces, engage in traditional activities of joy, like dancing in a circle or playing the pan pipes. These activities might be also found in Renaissance paintings, but the level of enthusiasm for life in the artist's heart is shown is the artist's clear stylistic...
The depiction of the figures is flat, but not to create a sense of coolness, as in Picasso, but to allow the viewer a panoramic view of a multiplicity of activities from a variety of vantage points. The joy of life is everywhere, not in a single location, or seen from a singular perspective. There is no singular focus in the work, not even a lake like in Cezanne's work, or a single individual.
All of these works do not merely differ from earlier representations of female nudes, but challenge the purpose of art in general. Truthfulness and careful attention to three-dimensionality, perspective, and line, cannot be equated in art. The truth of a work may lie outside of the realm of conventional reality. Such a notion was highly disturbing to the original audiences of these paintings.
Works Cited
Stokstad, Marilyn. (2005). Art History. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
