The Black Boat 1920

Henri Matisse, at some point in his life, painted ‘The Black Boat’ with oil on canvas. Look at how the blues bleed into the sky, the water, and even find their way into the shadows of the cliff face. Imagine Matisse in front of his easel, squinting at the scene, trying to figure out how to capture that particular slant of light on the boats. The black boat itself is just a big, bold stroke, right? It sits there, solid and present, while everything else seems to dissolve into the atmosphere. I like how the beach is littered with what look like sausages – or are they boats? Perhaps they are a touch of Matisse’s irreverence. He's probably saying: "Who cares what they are as long as they feel right?" Matisse always understood that painting wasn't just about what you see, but how you see it. We owe a lot to him and the other painters who came before him, those folks who weren't afraid to get a little messy, a little weird, in their pursuit of capturing something real.