Women on the Beach, Etrétat 1920

Henri Matisse made Women on the Beach, Etrétat with oil paint and a brush, and I think he was figuring out what paint can do. Look how the cliff face is just built up with these creamy, almost edible slabs of gray and green. It’s like he's asking, what if painting wasn't about illusion, but about building something right there on the surface? The brushstrokes are so present, so unapologetic. And that sky! Horizontal strokes of purply-gray melting into the white clouds – it's like he’s trying to capture a feeling more than a scene. The whole thing feels so open-ended, which reminds me a bit of Cezanne, who Matisse admired. But where Cezanne was all about structure, Matisse is more about sensation, about the sheer pleasure of color and touch. Painting for him was a conversation. Never fixed, always evolving.