The piano 1924

Henri Matisse made ‘The Piano’ with oil on canvas, it’s not dated, but feels like a moment captured, a real memory. I like to imagine him starting with those reds, laying them down with a brushy insistence, tiling the space with florals. You can almost feel the pressure he applied to the brush. What was he thinking about? I see the piano, the girl’s blue dress, and the boy’s stripy pyjamas and I wonder if he had a specific kind of painterly problem in mind. Maybe he was thinking about Cézanne, and the way one colour can 'speak' to another. I am not sure, but the composition has that quiet, reflective and playful mood. And he’s got that other kid in the armchair, lost in a book, tucked away in the corner there, what a painting! Matisse’s paintings always feel like a conversation – a conversation with colour, with form, with the viewer, and ultimately, with himself.