Les Gorges du Loup 1920 - 1925

Henri Matisse made ‘Les Gorges du Loup’ with oil on canvas, and looking at it, you can really sense him working through the process of painting. The color palette is so simple, mostly greens and earthy tones, but the way he's layered the paint gives it so much depth. You can almost feel the thickness of the leaves and the roughness of the bark. Take a look at that winding path, how the paint is applied in these short, choppy strokes. There's this real tension between flatness and depth. The whole scene kind of shimmers, doesn't it? Matisse's work often plays with these kinds of visual paradoxes, and you can see him grappling with similar ideas in paintings by someone like Cezanne. It’s like they’re both having this conversation across time about how we see, and what it means to capture a moment. Ultimately, it’s this ambiguity that keeps us coming back, searching for new ways to see and understand.