Boy with Butterfly Net 1907

Henri Matisse painted "Boy with Butterfly Net" with oil on canvas, using a palette that feels both simple and somehow a little unsettling. It’s like he’s mixed colours you wouldn’t expect, those greens and reds, setting off a reaction as you look around. It’s funny, isn’t it, how colour and texture can mess with your head? Look how Matisse uses thin paint, almost translucent in places, especially in the boy’s odd, golden legs. This choice gives the work this uncanny feeling, hovering somewhere between a dream and reality. Notice the slight awkwardness of the boy’s hands and feet, this almost naive treatment pulls the entire piece back from true portraiture. What is this red path he’s walking on? Thinking about this painting, I’m reminded a bit of Rousseau, another painter who wasn’t afraid to mix it up, to use color in ways that didn't make immediate, obvious sense. Art is all about that kind of back-and-forth, a conversation across time, playing with what we think we know and daring to see things differently.