The Romanian Green Bluse 1939

Henri Matisse made 'The Romanian Blouse' with oil paint sometime in the 1930’s, and the colours are so interesting. He used a range of blues and greens and put thick black outlines around everything, which gives the whole painting a sense of flatness. It's like he's making a poster, but with all the sensitive touch of a painter. Look at the hand in the foreground. There's something so awkward, so beautifully unresolved about the way he’s painted it. The fingers are too long and they are not very detailed, but there's also something so poignant about it. The hand feels like a metaphor for the whole painting: it's a bit clumsy, but also full of feeling. Matisse is always looking at his predecessors like Cezanne, and laying a path for future artists too - I can see some similarities between this work and Alex Katz. I find something new every time I look at this painting.