This canvas statesMatisse’s original procedure as a Fauve. The utterly unshaded and shadowless colours, however much at variance with nature , are not arrived at arbitrarily.Each change of hue “models” a shift of plane, as with Cezanne, and in addition the “law of complementaries” and “simultaneous contrasts” is followed. Two colours are complementary if their light beans fused in correct proportion, give a greyish white; each of these same two colours simultaneously enhances the brilliance of the other when contrasted – so the Impressionists held. Roughly, the complementary pairs are red and green, orange and blue, and yellow and violet. ThusMatissesees green in the skin as he complementary evoked by its natural pink; paints the hair an orange red to make it complementary to the bluish green in the adjacent part of the hat; and finds blue behind the neck because of the latter’s yellow. The somewhat acid effect, here as in other Fauve paintings, is due to the yellowish greens, greenish blues, pinkish reds and dull oranges – in other words , to a tendency to seek yellow everywhere.

A short while laterMatissebegan to work in fewer, larger, and more homogeneous areas of colour.