Three Sisters with an African Sculpture 1917

Matisse made this painting, Three Sisters with an African Sculpture, with oil on canvas, but the when is lost. Just look at those greens, oranges and purples; they're like, BAM! You can almost feel the brushstrokes dancing across the canvas. It’s like he was improvising, making it up as he went along. I can just imagine Matisse, you know, stepping back, squinting, maybe scratching his head, trying to figure out how to make it all work together. Like, how to balance the weight of those figures with the flatness of the background. The seated figure looks like she’s got a lot on her mind. Is she reading or trying to write something? There’s a great back and forth between the patterned clothes and that African sculpture that adds to this painting’s depth. I can feel echoes of Cezanne and hints of what Picasso was up to back then. Ultimately, it’s not about perfection, it’s about the conversation that painters have with each other, across time, about ways of seeing, thinking, and feeling in the world.