Focus on Le bonheur de vivre and explain the Inspiration.
Art historians James Cuno and Thomas Puttfarken have suggested that the inspiration for the work was Agostino Carracci's engraving of Reciproco Amore or Love in the Golden Age after the similarly named painting by the 16th-century Flemish painter Paolo Fiammingo.  Based on the many similarities with the engraving, in particular its theme of pastoral fantasy and its  composition with the circle of dancers in the background, Cuno came to the conclusion that Carracci's engraving had a decisive influence on the final composition of Le Bonheur de Vivre.Since the 1980s, art historians have debated the importance of tracing exact sources of inspiration, arguing that this distracts from Matisse's intervention. Though Matisse invokes the tradition of the pastoral landscape, his colors, forms, and figures refuse clear or simple meanings or associations.This painting seems to be Matisse's considered response to the hostility his Fauvist work had met with in the Salon d'Automne in 1905. He made many preparatory sketches of the figures and a cartoon of the composition.
pastoral Fauvist Agostino Carracci James Cuno Paolo Fiammingo Salon d'Automne similarly named painting