Nu à la chaise longue 1923

Henri Matisse made this painting of a nude on a chaise longue in oil paint. He laid down some confident marks. It’s a painting about seeing, a way of understanding the world through blocks of color, like pink skin and a dark red drape. The material quality of this painting is so direct. The canvas looks almost raw. The paint application is straightforward; you can see where the brushstrokes start and stop. Look at the way he’s painted the wall behind the figure. The roses are almost cartoonish, and the leaves are blobs of green, somehow that flattening of space makes the figure feel more present, like she’s right there in the room with us. It’s so easy to look at this as if it’s a literal depiction of a woman, but I think it’s more about Matisse’s playful process. I see a connection between this painting and some of Picasso’s later works, especially in the way both artists embraced a kind of simplified, almost childlike approach to form. Art is always evolving, and this piece reminds me that there's always room for new ways of seeing.