Self-Portrait with Pipe
1900
Before Henri Matisse became the king of wild, colorful Fauvism, he was a young artist figuring out his style with nothing but a pen and some intense energy. In this 1900 self-portrait, he attacks the paper with frantic, scribbled lines to build up the heavy shadows of his beard and flat cap, looking every bit the rugged bohemian with a pipe clamped in his teeth. This early modernist sketch captures a raw, gritty moment in his career long before he discovered the 'joy of life' palette that would make him famous, proving that even the greatest colorists started with messy, black-and-white energy.
- Technique
- Pen and ink
- Material
- Paper
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