Seville Still Life 1911

Matisse made Seville Still Life with oil on canvas and a whole lot of love for color, sometime in his life. Look at how Matisse builds up the scene with these rhythmic patterns, like he’s more interested in the dance of shapes than getting the furniture exactly right. The paint is applied in these bold, flat planes, a kind of mosaic of hues that somehow creates depth without shading. The tablecloth is like a playground of warm colors, oranges and yellows clashing just enough to make things interesting. See how the brushstrokes are visible? Matisse isn’t trying to hide his process, he wants you to see the painting being made, layer by layer. The whole thing reminds me of Bonnard who also reveled in these intimate, domestic scenes, where pattern and color do all the work of describing the world. It’s this wonderful conversation across time, artists borrowing and building on each other's ideas, embracing the joy and ambiguity of painting.