The Open Window

One extraordinary thing about The Open Window is its discretely disguised similarity with Cubist works of art.  Hernri Matisse is famous for his Fauvist compositions, a style generally recognized as the antithesis to Cubism.  At first, there is no clear connection between this bright, cheerful painting and an archetypal Cubist work with a neutral-toned conglomeration of geometric shapes.  However, the assimilation of interior and exterior space in The Open Window is conceptually the same as Cubist passages that work to fuse mass and void.  Both Matisse and the Cubists deny the beholder a tangible sense of foreground and background.  Note the lack of aerial perspective in Matisse’s canvas, which pushes what would be the vanishing point into the foreground.  Now the boats and French doors begin to compete for attention in this canvas.   The playful technique of exhibiting an unnatural space essentially establishes the work of art as an entity unto itself, no longer a mere representation of reality.  Matisse and the Cubists took different routes to arrive at semi-abstraction.  In retrospect, they open the same door (or window) for their followers to create and advocate for a wholly abstract art.