La Danseuse 1927

Here we have Henri Matisse’s pastel, La Danseuse, which is all about how he moved colour around to capture an image. The colours are soft, the marks are loose, but look how the pinks and yellows in the face and the floor are echoed in the background and the figure’s costume. Everything feels of a piece because colour connects it all. I love the skirt, it looks like scribbled lines of grey, but when you look closely there’s light and dark. It’s almost as if you could grab it, like a handful of candy floss. Matisse creates the sensation of weight and volume by overlaying the marks one on top of the other. He doesn’t hide anything, he reveals the process, and in this way, the image feels raw and very alive. Matisse’s use of colour and line puts me in mind of the playful, almost child-like, marks of Joan Miro. Both artists invite us to see the world afresh.