Femme perse 1933

Here's Matisse's 'Femme perse', made with pencil on paper. Look at those delicate lines dancing across the page. You can almost hear the scratching of the pencil as Matisse coaxes this face into being. I can imagine him, lost in thought, trying to capture not just what he sees, but something deeper, maybe even the soul of the sitter. The necklace looks kind of heavy. I wonder if she chose it herself? Matisse often used line in this way, almost like he was sculpting with it. It reminds me of other artists like Picasso, who were also exploring new ways of seeing and representing the world. They’re all in conversation, you know, bouncing ideas off each other across time and space. This drawing is all about gesture and suggestion. It’s like a whisper, inviting us to fill in the blanks and create our own version of this Persian woman. That's what's so great about painting, it leaves room for ambiguity, for multiple interpretations.