Henri Matisse and goldfish

While retaining the use of color which he is notable for, Matisse included goldfish in various still life scenarios, often as a feature found in depictions of his various studios rather than the focus of pieces.

Most of these pieces were oil on canvas still life paintings, but Matisse would produce etchings, drawings, and prints featuring the motif in 1929.

Matisse admired the "relaxed and contemplative" lifestyle Moroccans had, a view shared with other Europeans who visited North Africa, according to Smarthistory.

[4] The 1910s decade was "an extremely reflective period of his career when new spatial configurations were explored," and found Matisse using Cubist devices "for his illusionary ends, so as to paradoxically suggest enclosure.

"[4] After returning to Issy from his trip to Morocco, Matisse produced a series of nine paintings during the spring and early summer of 1912, of which Goldfish was included.

[14] A similar Woman before an Aquarium painting (dated 1921–1923), included elements Matisse encountered in his trips to North Africa.

Noted to be aware of this theme, Matisse once remarked to Marcel Sembat, "those big devils, there for hours, contemplative, before a flower and some red fish.

[2] Kate Linker of Artforum wrote that implicit features "in these studios" are extended to other spaces, elaborating that "the spaces in Matisse's paintings are not generally organized by formal coherence or design, but in a symbolic manner, using repetitions of shape and hue, thematic analogies or pictorial effects to enforce, or embody, their meaning.

"[4] Linker also wrote that: The roundness of The Red Studio returns us to the goldfish bowl, to which the painting bears clear affinities.

If the bowl functions as a metaphor for space and for the artwork in its role of spatial summation, then The Red Studio can be regarded as its analogue.

"[4]In 2022, Broadsheet commented on Interior with a Goldfish Bowl, writing that the piece has "a special resonance for the contemporary viewer," and calling it "a really rewarding work to look at in the age of [COVID-19], when we've all spent a little bit too long our own private space.