In (Mme Matisse a la raie verte) or Madame Matisse With the Green Stripe, Henri Matisse (ahn-ree mah-teess) uses color to describe his wife. Her face is divided into two parts with a stripe of green.

Her hair is purpled and pulled up in a knot. Her hair extends outward and upward beyond the limits of the frame of three colors. Her right side repeats the brightness of the green.

Matisse painted this unusual portrait of Amilie Matisse in 1905. Matisse divides the face with a cool and warm side. The idea of light and color were important to him.

His painting is line and color on a flat plane without losing the image.

What I am after, he once explained, is expression. What mood is expressed in this painting? The whole arrangement of my picture is expressive.