Corsican Landscape 1898

Henri Matisse made this "Corsican Landscape" painting using oil paint on canvas. These are traditional art materials, of course, yet how Matisse applied them is anything but traditional. The painting is made of visible brushstrokes, each one a record of the artist's hand moving across the canvas. The colors are intense and not directly representational; note how the ground plane is evoked with strokes of yellow and the sky with vibrant blue and white daubs. This way of working prioritizes the artist's direct experience and sensory impressions over realistic depiction. It is a painterly approach, one that celebrates the materiality of the medium itself. Matisse's direct manner of painting emphasizes individual expression and challenges the prevailing academic style of his time. Instead, he focused on the pleasures of looking, and of marking the surface with paint. In this regard, he shares common ground with many makers in the field of craft, where process and material sensibility are prized.