Afternoon of a Faun 1932

Henri Matisse made this drawing, Afternoon of a Faun, with confident and playful strokes. Just imagine his hand moving across the paper, figuring and re-figuring these bodies, placing them in space. You can see how he's feeling it out, right? Like, he's not trying to get it perfect, but trying to get it right. It's this dance between control and letting go that makes it so alive. Matisse always looked at the Old Masters but then did his own thing. He was constantly rethinking how a line could define form and space. And like other artists, he probably spent a lot of time just looking, absorbing, and letting it all simmer in his brain. Isn’t it amazing how artists keep the conversation going, each one building on what came before? They are always responding and reinventing and discovering new ways of seeing. That’s the beauty of painting – it’s a never-ending exploration.