La fenêtre ouverte 1911

Henri Matisse made 'La fenêtre ouverte' with oil on canvas, and what strikes me first is how he sees the world as a series of marks, a process of continuous construction, like building a house with colors. Look at the way the pink of the floor meets the lavender of the walls; it’s not a smooth transition but a vibrant encounter, almost a collision. The surface is alive with texture; you can practically feel the drag of the brush across the canvas. And notice the sketch of the flowers in the vase, barely there but full of potential, like a thought half-formed. It mirrors how the outside landscape flows into the room, blurring the lines between inside and out, real and imagined. Matisse, like Bonnard, turns the everyday into something extraordinary. It's not just a window; it’s a portal into a different way of seeing.