Matisse, The Green Stripe (Madame Matisse), 1905, oil on canvas, 16 x 12 3/4 in., Copenhagen, Royal Museum of Fine Arts.

This is a fine example of alla prima or direct painting using a color-patch technique. Each color is put on in a patch, a relatively distinct shape of color, not blended into its neighbors. Few layers of paint were used. Note the bare ground in the lower left corner covered with a thin film of red-violet.

Many hues are used: yellow, orange, red, blue, violet and green, and they are often used at full strength.

Matisse was the leading artist of the movement known as Fauvism. This group of French, painters emphasized the use of strong colors to represent the artist's emotional response to the subject rather than natural appearances.