Portrait de Gilberte Lallée 1918

Henri Matisse made this drawing, Portrait de Gilberte Lallée, using graphite on paper. The drawing is light, almost ghostly. You can see how Matisse is feeling his way around the form with lines that sometimes double back or trail off, like he’s thinking aloud with the pencil. I like how he’s captured her gaze, steady and direct, and the way the braids frame her face. It's like he's not just drawing what he sees, but also what he knows is there, the underlying structure, the weight of her head on her shoulders. He reduces the face to planes and angles, to create a sculptural quality. It reminds me a bit of Picasso's portraits from around the same time, all those angles and sharp edges. But Matisse keeps it softer somehow, more about capturing a likeness than breaking it apart. And I think that's what art's all about, trying to see the world in a new way, and then sharing that vision with others.