Henri Matisse — Auguste Pellerin Portrait on Museum Wall

5 October 2017 · Paris

Henri Matisse's portrait of Auguste Pellerin hangs on a white gallery wall, its dark palette and simplified planes pulling the subject forward out of near-black shadow. The painting reduces Pellerin to his essentials — bald head, folded hands, a single red lapel pin — and still communicates more than a faithful likeness would. Matisse painted the collector twice; this version pushes toward abstraction without losing the weight of a particular man sitting in a particular room. The wall label to the left identifies artist and title; everything else the canvas argues for itself.