“If you put in eyes, nose, mouth…doing so paralyzes the imagination of the spectator and obliges him to see a specific person, a certain resemblance, and so on.”

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“If you put in eyes, nose, mouth…doing so paralyzes the imagination of the spectator and obliges him to see a specific person, a certain resemblance, and so on.”

— Painter Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

Many portraits in the museum have these features. Do you see a specific person you know? Who? Is Matisse correct?

Quoted in Peter Steinhart, The Undressed Art: Why We Draw.

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