The Red Sofa 1921

Henri Matisse made this painting, The Red Sofa, with what looks like oil on canvas. The colours are surprisingly muted for Matisse. It has a kind of red-ochre monochrome feel to it. The paint handling looks pretty direct. The layers are not too built up, and the forms are defined by colour relationships, like the model's blue dress against the red of the sofa. It's a nice contrast of cool and warm, one of the many ways painters create space and volume. Check out how he's used the white of the canvas for the highlights on the model's dress and shoes, and face. It’s fresh and gives the painting some punch. It’s hard to look at this and not think of Bonnard, another French painter. Both artists had an eye for the everyday, the domestic, and the beauty of colour. But where Bonnard is soft and subtle, Matisse is bold and declarative. They both embrace ambiguity. Art is not about fixed meanings, it’s about opening up the possibilities of interpretation.