"The Red Room" by Henri Matisse

    In the theory of art critic or art appreciation which was introduced by Edmund Burke Feldman, who was a professor of Art at the University of Georgia, there are four easy steps to evaluate an artwork which are description, analysis, interpretation and judgement. This famous theory of his is known as the Feldman Theory.

Now, I won't go into discussing about the first 3 steps which are description, analysis and interpretation, because I think most of us have the ability to look at the painting and observe the physical aspect of it including the element and principles of art which are included in this painting entitled "The Red Room" by Henri Matisse. Even if some of us can't and failed to find it, I'm very sure that there are a lot of other sources discussing about this. However, it is hard to find sources that talked about the judgement of this painting. Why? It is really because judgement can differ from one person to another.

So, this is my judgement of this painting. If some of you find it is hard to be accepted, it is really not my fault or your fault, because it is subjective and the judgement really depends on the readers' preferences of the artists, their styles and their view in art and life.

Henri Matisse,

The Dessert: Harmony in Red,

1908

 Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

I considered this painting as  successful because the colors used by Matisse  which are warm and cool colors shows a balance of emotional quality in Matisse painting . I consider this painting as a really emotion-affecting painting.

The domination of red color all over the painting makes people cheerful and active since the energy flow is induced by the color. However, Matisse has also sophisticatedly put green and blue colors which are cool colors in the painting. The existence of these cool colors are actually making the ‘heaviness’ of the red colors appear a bit lighter. In other words, though red colors can give excitement, but the green create a healing and relaxing feeling after a burst of excitement.

         So, in my opinion, this painting can be placed in any space since it will create warm and happy feelings in people. By looking at it, people will be encourage to do almost anything happily and with full of excitement. Imagine this painting being placed in a classroom, student might be induced to work and study more diligently.

        So, that's all from me. Try to form your own judgement of this painting. Would you consider it as a successful painting or not? Just because it's famous and the artist is fully established, doesn't mean you have to agree to everything he said or did. This is a new era, human's perception nowadays might be really different than the era that artist lived on. Good luck :)