Woman With Necklace 1937

Henri Matisse made "Woman With Necklace" with oil on canvas, and it feels like a real exploration of process. The way he lays down the paint, thin in some areas and thicker in others, gives you a sense of his own searching, of the painting growing organically. I love the red dashes along the front of her dress. They’re almost like a code or a rhythm, and that kind of playful mark-making really opens up the piece. The colour palette is so unique, there is a sense of spontaneity throughout. Compared to some of his later, more flattened works, this painting really shows the physicality of the paint, the touch of his hand. It’s like he’s having a conversation with the canvas, each stroke a response to the last. It reminds me a little of some of Gauguin's portraits, in the way that the figure merges with the background. For Matisse, like so many artists, art was a constant quest, wasn't it? A journey without a fixed destination.