Dark colors and dark mood of the picture are typical for this period of creativity of Matisse, in which he experienced personal difficulties. The first problem was that Matisse could not find buyers of paintings, because of what he could not provide for his family.
His wife had to keep a dress shop to feed her family. These difficulties were aggravated by the fact that Matisse and his wife Amelie were the “scapegoats” in the case of espionage of Amelie’s mother, who served as a Humbert’s housekeeper.
Amelie was forced to close the store, and Matisse again had to provide for the family on her own. This partly explains the transition of Matisse to the paintings with more popular and popular motifs.
Related Paintings
