Le Petit pêcheur, Maintenon 1918

Henri Matisse made this painting, Le Petit Pêcheur, Maintenon, with oil on canvas. It’s a lovely, quiet landscape dominated by greens, greys, and touches of earth tones. I can almost feel Matisse working on this outside, shifting and adjusting to the light. Look how the paint is applied so freely, with such a clear love for the stuff! The texture and materiality is so present here. I see these strokes, loaded with feeling, in the way the trees and water are articulated. It's like he's wrestling with what he sees. The little fisherman, a splash of blue, seems almost incidental, but it roots the painting in a specific moment, a real place. In his broader body of work you can see this, he's got the Fauvist colour, but already you can see him simplifying, distilling forms. He really paved the way for so many painters! Painting like this is a conversation across time. It shows us how to really look and feel.