Compare and Contrast.

‘Sunflowers’ by Van Gogh and ‘La musique’ by Henri Matisse. These two paintings are what we have been asked to compare and contrast for our writing in class. Van Gogh's style of art is Expressionism and Henri Matisses style of art is Fauvism.

Vincent Van Gogh uses the technique of little vertical strokes throughout his entire painting of ‘Sunflowers’. The shading in the flowers made it look realistic but it wasn't a very joyful painting. The flowers were drooping and painted in dark colours. Yellow and brown were the colours that were mainly used.  The petals have fallen off some the flowers as well.  It showed that he was probably sad at the time when he painted it.

‘La Musique’ is one painting that you can enjoy. It’s bright right through most of the painting. Fauvism is the technique that he used. Fauve means ‘wild beast’ in French. The painting looks very happy and joyful. It looks like the two women are having a great time playing the guitar.  The colours are bright and bold. He used red, green, yellow and blue.


If I compare and contrast the two paintings, I can see there is not much resemblance between them. The only things the paintings had in common was that the colour yellow was used and both had plants in them. La Musique is a happy painting with women and bright colours in it. Sunflowers has dull colours and it looks more realistic than La Musique.


In conclusion, I think that Van Gogh and Henri Matisse are different in their own way and that they both enjoyed painting when they were alive.