Madame Matisse in her Sunday hat — except her face is green and violet, her dress a riot of arbitrary color, every stroke an open act of will.
Why it matters
The painting that named a movement: critics at the 1905 Salon called its room 'the cage of wild beasts' (fauves), and modern color was born.
What to notice
Asked what color the dress really was, Matisse answered: 'Black, of course.' The color is feeling, not report.
Context
Bought, amid the mockery, by Gertrude and Leo Stein — the start of Matisse's salvation by collectors.
About the artist
Henri Matisse (1869–1954). Leader of the Fauves — the 'wild beasts' of 1905 — Matisse spent a long life proving that color, freed from description, could carry feeling on its own.
Toward Modern Art (c. 1890–1935): At the century's turn, painting's last conventions came loose. Sargent and Sorolla brought virtuoso light to the salon; Kollwitz turned printmaking into conscience; Modigliani, Matisse and Kandinsky let line and color leave description behind — until painting needed no subject at all.
Walk the Grand Gallery → See this painting hung in its wing, with music and guided tours, in the full virtual museum.