Flowers 1919

Henri Matisse made this oil painting called “Flowers” with brushstrokes and colors that feel both casual and intentional. The painting is a symphony of pinks, greens, and blacks, with a vase rendered in strokes of gold. You can almost see Matisse in his studio, circling the canvas, responding to the emerging image, laying down colors, and adjusting, always adjusting. I can almost feel the surface of the painting, with its thick dollops of paint sitting next to thinly applied washes. See how a single stroke of green becomes a leaf, or how a dab of pink evokes the softness of a petal. Matisse isn't just painting flowers, he's investigating how color and form can create feeling. His use of bold color planes reminds me of the work of painters like Van Gogh and Gauguin, both of whom were also interested in how color could express pure emotion. When we look at a painting like this, we’re witnessing a painter in conversation with his contemporaries, his predecessors, and with himself.