Landscape at Collioure 1905

Henri Matisse made this small painting of the landscape at Collioure with bright, joyful colors. He’s put down these confident marks using a brush loaded with pure pigment. You can imagine him, can't you, squinting in the Mediterranean sunlight, trying to capture the way the light feels in Southern France. I love the way the forms are built up out of short dashes of color – greens and blues for the trees, oranges and reds for the rooftops. It's like he’s built the landscape out of pure sensation, with the paint itself becoming the experience of the place. Look at the ground, how it's rendered with these little dabs and dots, almost like confetti. Matisse was part of a generation of painters who were all looking at each other's work, trying to figure out how to make a painting new. It's like they were having this ongoing conversation, pushing each other to see and feel the world in new ways. And it’s a conversation that continues to this day through painting!