Had my first sublime experience with a piece of classic art the other day

6 July 2023

This post was originally made on Cohost.

“Room at the Beau-Rivage,” Henri Matisse, 1918

I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Monday and this painting keeps drifting through my head. I’m not going to be able to do it justice in text. This picture will downplay it. It sincerely looks so vivid in person. There’s a subtle depth to it which is lost in an image.

But even so, even now, even this imitation does make my mind wander. I felt called to it the way old romantics talk of love at first sight. I entered the room, looked about, and saw it on the far wall. I couldn’t look away. I slowly approached it, this lone painting nobody else was looking at, and just stared. I felt a shiver growing up my spine as i heard the phantom silence of its sea breeze. The distant whistle of unheard winds. The quiet of an afternoon, after a long trip, where a lonely armchair and a mild salt in the air beckons.

My feet had begun to mildly hurt. I had been walking a while and i need new orthotics. But all i could think of was this room. The suitcase casually laid out, as if we had just arrived. Our coats not even on the rack yet. And already the relief was palpable. You could taste it like the smell of fresh coffee.

My girlfriend walked up to me eventually, placing a hand on my shoulder gently and asking how I was doing. I turned slowly, then sharply, like shaking off hypnosis. I relayed my thoughts and feelings to her. We moved on after they gave me a little longer to linger with it.

On our way out of the museum i gave it one final look. Let the distant breeze slip by me one more time.

Matisse kinda nailed this one didn’t he.