1906, Henri Matisse, The Young Sailor II -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: Young Sailor II and Young Sailor I stand among the most compelling paintings of Matisse's Collioure years. In Young Sailor II, Matisse simplified the image of a local sardine fisherman, sharply defining his subject's form and generalizing his facial features to a flattened, masklike definition. The pink background gives us no clues as to context; only the outfit suggests the man is a fisherman. Matisse exclusively uses blue, green, pink, and red, which shift from light to dark and dark to light as the eye moves across the canvas. While the portrait does not startle most contemporary viewers, it was routinely mocked in its day, likely for its brazen departure from reality.
1906, Henri Matisse, The Young Sailor II -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: Young Sailor II and Young Sailor I stand among the most compelling paintings of Matisse's Collioure years. In Young Sailor II, Matisse simplified the image of a local sardine fisherman, sharply defining his subject's form and generalizing his facial features to a flattened, masklike definition. The pink background gives us no clues as to context; only the outfit suggests the man is a fisherman. Matisse exclusively uses blue, green, pink, and red, which shift from light to dark and dark to light as the eye moves across the canvas. While the portrait does not startle most contemporary viewers, it was routinely mocked in its day, likely for its brazen departure from reality.