Woman With Necklace 1937

Henri Matisse made this painting, Woman With Necklace, with oil paints. The dominant impression is made by these very bold marks and a palette of greens, reds, oranges, and pale blues. I’m imagining the act of painting itself, a shifting, emerging thing through trial, error, and intuition. Poor Henri! What must it have been like to create this portrait? I sympathize, and I imagine he was trying to make something solid out of such an ethereal medium as oil paint. Look how thin the paint is in some areas and how it is so full of texture in others. It reminds me of some of my own works, and the ways I have also tried to capture emotion, intention, or meaning. Like all artists, Matisse was in an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas, inspiring one another’s creativity across time. He embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations. There's no single reading here.