Matisse, Self-Portrait, 1906. When Matisse painted this self-portrait, his years of obscurity were coming to an end. His wary glance conveys vulnerability and caution; the head, volumetric and thick with paint, rises from frail shoulders like a sunflower on a half-drawn stalk. Weirdly, the flesh-toned paint of the forehead is laid on top of the hair, instead of the other way around, as if to say that the face, though painfully candid, is also a mask.