Jeune femme martiniquaise 1947

Henri Matisse made this drawing, *Jeune femme martiniquaise*, with ink on paper. Look at how Matisse has made this portrait with a single, continuous line. Imagine how he’s coaxing out a likeness with the most minimal means, just a line that loops and curls. I think of Cy Twombly here, also drawing lines on surfaces, but where Twombly is all wild energy, Matisse is calm, controlled, and intensely focused on his subject. It’s like he’s trying to capture the essence of this young woman from Martinique with as little effort as possible. It’s interesting to consider drawing as both a method of inquiry and a means of documenting something experienced. The process of drawing itself becomes a way of seeing more clearly. The hand, the eye, and the subject are all working together in some kind of intuitive exchange. It’s all about the feeling of the line here, about how it can express mood and emotion.