Gertrude Stein's Masterpieces

Woman with a Hat, Henri Matisse, 1904
When Matisse exhibited this portrait of his wife Amelie at the annual Salon d'Automne in 1905, the derisive response of the public and press was relentless. A mocking group of conservative artists sent him a woman whose face was painted from forehead to chin in acid green stripes. Even Leo Stein, who would later buy the picture, said it struck him at first as "the nastiest smear of paint" he had ever seen.

• Cézanne and Beyond