The Maiden and the vase of flowers or pink nude 1921

Henri Matisse made this painting, The Maiden and the vase of flowers or pink nude, at an unknown date with oil on canvas. It’s full of pale shades and pastels that give an intimate glimpse into a private world. You can almost feel Matisse dabbing at the canvas here. He's trying to capture the light, the feeling of a room with a view, a woman caught in a moment of quiet reverie. Look how the figure merges into the background: the pink of her skin echoes the hues of the wall and the sofa. This is like his earlier fauvist experiments, but softer, more dreamlike. What's she thinking as she stands there, draped in white? Maybe he wanted to play with the way our eyes make sense of form, how we fill in the gaps between what we see and what we know. Other painters like Bonnard were doing similar things at that time, each trying to find new ways to show us what it feels like to be alive, to be looking.