Art 101 - Ekphrases

Ekphrases: The Smell of Flowers and Fruit

This work is by Henri Matisse. The medium is oil on canvas. On a pale white table sits a bowl of fresh peaches and a China vase filled with wild flowers. The table is covered with a pale white cloth which crinkles at the front of the it. The folds of the crinkles are in values of black and dark grey, and some hints of green. The cloth is short in comparison to most table cloths -- just hanging over the edge of the table, and has a ruffled edge like the end of a small girl’s dress. However, the table does not cover the entire lower bottom of the canvas. There is space between the bottom of the page and the end of the table. That space is in hues of orange and light greens.

The bowl holding the fruit is pale white in color, but because of the shadows and shades it is appears to be a mixture of grey tones with the outline of the bowl in black. To the right of the bowl -- unrealistic as it might be -- is a shadow (of the fruit) that is orange in color. To the left of the bowl is a more realistic shadow of the bowl and the China vase beside it. There are two shadows: one of the bowl, which is light blue and one of the China vase, which is charcoal grey. The mouth of the bowl is snow white. Inside the bowl is an assortment of fruits: rust-orange colored peaches, light orange colored oranges, sunshine yellow lemons, and what appears to be an unrippened peach with green and orange hues mixed. Hanging over the bowl of fruit from the China vase is a fern branch, barely grazing a peach.

To the left of the China vase is a dark aqua blue shadow that spans from the bottom of the vase to the end of the table. The China vase is precisely that, an elongated, slim vase, which from the top of it to the neck is a dark, navy color. From the neck to the bottom, the vase is primarily white, with shadings of grey and occasional blurred shapes that are navy also. Facing the viewer and coming directly out of the mouth of the vase are pure white daisies with lemon yellow centers. Completely surrounding the daisies are red-orange (analogous) colored carnations. Intermixed with the carnations are hunter green flower stems and leaves. Above the carnations to the right are four lone daisies standing apart, but also beside one another. Standing high in the vase are more red-orange colored carnations to the left. Intermixed in those carnations is one single daisy and a sea of green leaves. Three of those hunter green leaves are fern stems with ridged leaves with one stem hanging directly over the bowl of fruit.

The background is a light olive and orange color almost a faux stone appearance. The background is sectioned into a large black square. The square is outlined in black, however the inside of the square is light olive and orange in hue. Another black line above the square box spans from left to right. Between the square and the line above it is a darker hunter green color that also shades the outer left corner of the square. The top of the square is in the middle of the carnations and the bottom of the square is in the middle of the vase. Recall that the square is behind the vase and bowl. It is on the wall. Finally, above the line that is above the square is a black outlined half square. The upper portion of the second square is cut off, and it is the same length of the bottom square. The entire background is light olive and orange in hue, except for the geometric square shapes which are lined in black.