Can you spot where the subject of this painting by Matisse is sitting? 🤔 In “La Japonaise au bord de l’eau” (La Japonaise: Woman beside the Water), Henri Matisse painted his wife Amélie sitting by the water’s edge, looking down at an object in her hands. The brushwork is so fluid that the boundaries between her body and the landscape dissolve. (Look closely and you’ll find faint traces of pencil outlining Amelie’s form.) When Matisse debuted his work from this period at the 1905 Salon d’Automne in Paris, critics were quick to pan his handling of brush and color—likening his work to that of a child. Yet often, the negative reviews also acknowledged the artist as pioneering: “It’s Matisse’s school that appears the most alive, most novel, and most debated.” Join the thousands of visitors who have seen “Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal” to uncover the controversy that positioned Matisse as a leading artist of his generation. #Matisse #SFMOMA [Henri Matisse, “La Japonaise a...