Seated Figure, Striped Carpet 1920

Henri Matisse made this oil painting, Seated Figure, Striped Carpet, sometime in the early 20th century. It's a process of layering, a dance between intention and accident. The texture of the carpet and the figure’s shawl are built up with small marks, in pure hues of red and blue, which combine to almost vibrate on the canvas. The paint isn’t thick, but neither is it thin; it’s applied in short dashes, almost dry. Look at the edge of the chair. It’s a series of stripes, but they don’t quite line up; the figure seems to be dissolving into the space around her. I see a connection to the work of Bonnard, who shared Matisse’s interest in the domestic sphere, in color, in how painting can capture a feeling. It is these paintings, and the process of painting itself, which invites us to explore our own subjective understanding of form, feeling, and being.