Painter's Family 1911

Here, in the Hermitage Museum is Henri Matisse's "Painter's Family," painted with oils on canvas. What do you see? I see the bold, decorative patterns clashing in a domestic interior, that's somehow also very still and full of thought. I wonder what it was like for Matisse to create this piece? It's like he's arranged his family not as portraits, but as shapes. The colours are flat and Fauvist – that clanging red! – and the figures have a strange stillness. Even the one reaching to move a chess piece seems stuck, posed in a tableau. Look closely at the way the patterned wallpaper meets the patterned rug. It's not quite right, is it? But that tension gives the whole scene this uncanny feeling, like a dream you can't quite grasp. It's a bold move – playing with perspective to create a surface that buzzes with energy. I think Matisse is telling us that painting isn't about representation, it’s about feeling your way through the world.