Algerian Woman 1909

Henri Matisse painted 'Algerian Woman' using oil on canvas and a whole lot of Fauvist attitude. The cool blues and fleshy pinks aren’t exactly realistic, but they vibrate with life! I get the sense that Matisse wasn't going for accuracy, instead, he sought a feeling. The paint application is pretty direct, you can see the brushstrokes building up, layering and mixing colors right on the canvas. Take a look at the woman's face, how Matisse uses bold strokes of peach and red to define her features. It’s a really gutsy move that pays off. There's something almost unfinished about it, like a sketch that's been given the full-color treatment. This reminds me of other figurative works by artists like Picasso, who were unafraid to bend and abstract the human form in their pursuit of emotional expression. It's a reminder that art is a conversation, where artists borrow, steal, and riff off each other's ideas, and that definitive meaning is perhaps less interesting than the invitation to continue thinking.