France 1939

This is a painting by Henri Matisse, and when you look at it you just know that the making was all about colour and shape. It’s like the painting came into being through bold moves and lots of intuition. Matisse is playing with form and surface, and it feels like a kind of experimentation – a back and forth. I imagine him stepping back, squinting, making another mark, testing it out. What must it have been like to work on this? He’s got that creamy yellow and that super red, really making them sing. The paint looks thin, almost like a watercolour, but so decisive. That sweeping line of the red robe—it's not just a line, it's a feeling, an intention! Matisse’s Fauvist paintings, with their vibrant colours and simplified forms, remind us that art isn't about capturing reality, but about creating a new one. He’s in conversation with artists across time, inspiring creativity and showing us that painting is a way of expressing the world.