Nu agenouillé, de face c. 1908

This is a drawing of a nude woman, kneeling, made by Henri Matisse. It's all done in pencil, so the focus is really on the line and how it moves across the page. The thing that grabs me here is the expressiveness of the line itself. Look at how it thickens and thins, how it suggests form without fully defining it. There’s a real confidence in the way Matisse puts down these marks, almost like he’s thinking aloud on paper. It’s not about perfection but about capturing a sense of movement, a fleeting impression. See the cross-hatching, the quick, scribbled lines that create shadows and volume around her body? They’re so simple, but they tell you everything you need to know. Matisse was always experimenting, and this drawing feels like a moment of pure exploration. You might think of Picasso, who was working through his own ideas about form and representation around the same time. But while Picasso often broke things down into fragments, Matisse was more interested in finding the essential, lyrical quality of a form. It's like he’s saying, "Here’s what I see, but also here’s how I feel about it." And that’s what makes it so compelling.