Odalisque 1923

Henri Matisse made ‘Odalisque’ with oil on canvas, and I can only imagine the exotic thoughts he was having while painting. The brushstrokes are loose, confident, and not too worried about details, leaving room for our imagination. I wonder, was Matisse trying to capture a real moment, or was he making something up? The warm yellows and oranges against the cooler blues, it's like a dance of colors, very typical of his Fauvist period, when colour was everything. I bet he was thinking about other artists, like Delacroix, who also painted exotic scenes. I keep wondering, how did he get that glow on her skin? Is that something he saw, or something he felt? The world he creates is a space of imagination that makes me want to grab my own brushes and make my mark. It is an endless conversation between artists across time.