Marguerite with Hat 1914

Here we have Henri Matisse’s “Marguerite with Hat,” painted sometime in his career, we don’t know exactly when. It’s all about immediacy. Look at how the pinks and greens brush up against each other. It’s an exercise in the material qualities of paint. It’s thin, so thin, you can see right through it. In the top left corner, see where the green paint meets the brim of Marguerite's hat? See how that line just sort of stops? What can feel so radical is that it's unfinished, but deliberate, like he decided to stop right there and leave it for us. It's like he is saying, "Here you go, it's just paint." There's something so satisfying about the way Matisse gives us just enough information, and leaves the rest up to our imagination. It's like a conversation between the artist and the viewer, where we're both participating in the creation of the image. He reminds me a bit of Morandi, another painter who managed to distill a world of meaning into seemingly simple gestures.