Woman Reclining 1921

Henri Matisse made 'Woman Reclining' with paint, probably in the early twentieth century. Look at those marks! See how the image is built up through layers of thin colour, almost like watercolour? This reminds us that painting is as much about the process as it is about the image. There's a beautiful tension here between the flatness of the picture plane and the illusion of depth. Matisse uses colour and pattern to flatten the space, but the reclining woman still feels present. Notice the details in her face, the almost careless daubs of colour that create her features. They don't quite resolve into photorealism but somehow capture the essence of the figure. And those oranges and reds are just so vibrant and daring. Matisse was always experimenting with colour and form, and you can see echoes of his work in later artists like David Hockney. But what do I know, really? It’s just paint, after all.