Scène d’intérieur 1944

Henri Matisse made this interior scene with ink on paper at some point in his career. It’s all lines, see? Like he's drawing with a needle, just gently scratching the surface. The magic of Matisse lies in his ability to suggest form and space with so little. Look at the way he defines the objects on the table – a vase of flowers, some pomegranates, a cup and saucer. Each element is rendered with a delicate, almost whimsical line, yet together they create a cohesive and inviting composition. Notice the flowers on the left, so simple and sparse but they balance out the objects on the right of the frame, like they're talking to one another. I wonder how many attempts it took to get the balance right? You could almost say Picasso was doing this, in a different way, but in these years they were both looking, learning and responding to each other’s lines, and to those of the artists they admired. It's a conversation, an endless exchange of ideas, where definitive answers just don't exist.