Three Sisters and ‘The Rose Marble Table’ 1917

Henri Matisse painted this piece, Three Sisters and ‘The Rose Marble Table’, with a sort of casual intensity. The colours are muted, but don't mistake that for timidness, he is pushing this piece, pulling the surface and using this slightly strange palette. You can see how the paint is laid down, thin in some spots, thicker in others, like on the patterned robe of the sister on the right. It's not trying to hide its process. The paint isn't glossy, it's a very tactile surface, one that emphasises the flatness and the materiality of the medium. And look at the lines of the chair, how wobbly and searching they are, it's this that gives the painting its energy. Matisse, like Bonnard, and Vuillard, used paint to construct a world, one where things are not always what they seem, but suggest something deeper.